LOOK UP

"Ave" from Evocations

Steven Landis (NC)

crossing over

Jackson C. Thomas (MO)

I. "Selene" from Ad Astra

Allison McIntosh (MO)

She covers herself in stars
with the comfort of night.
Laying down devoid
of all colors brushed in light.
She can rest here,
away from day and expectation,
naked, unafraid,
natural and powerful.
Exposing herself at will,
only as she sees fit;
elegant and patient
as La Luna.
-Huascar Medina

An Infinite Storm of Beauty

Caroline Mallonee (NY)

When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop,
striped and dotted with continents and islands,
flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one,
the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.
-John Muir

III. "The Breathing Field" from Ad Astra

Allison McIntosh (MO)

Between each vertebra
is a through line
of your life’s story,
where the setting sun
has burned all colors
into the cord. Step
over. Put on the dark
shirt of stars.
A full moon rises
over the breathing field,
seeps into clover and the brown
lace of its roots
where insects are resting
their legs. Take in the view.
So much is still
to be seen. Get back
behind your back, behind
what is behind you.
-Wyatt Townley

A Present from a Small Distant World

Alex Eddington (Canada)

We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some--perhaps many--may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:
This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.
-Jimmy Carter

ecliptic

L.V. Wood (CT)

nebular

Kota Hayton (MO/Japan)

The New Moon

Ēriks Ešenvalds (Latvia)

Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,
Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
Left me nothing lovely or whole—
Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
Day that dies in dusky blue:
For suddenly over the factories
I saw a moon in the cloudy seas—
A wisp of beauty all alone
In a world as hard and gray as stone—
Oh who could be bitter and want to die
When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?

Moonlight Sound Design

Raimonds Tiguis (Latvia)

In the moonlight, time stands still.
The present melts into the past,
and my spirit communes with souls
That have passed before me.

I can never explain, can never tell you.
No!

In the night, it smells of morning.
And in the silence, flowers and birds herald the light.
Tears in my eyes, like dewdrops on flowers that,
with the light, will disappear, having been lost in
darkness.

I can never explain, can never tell you.
No!
-Raimonds Tiguls

Goodnight Moon

Eric Whitacre

In the great green room
there was a telephone
and a red balloon
and a picture of
the cow jumping over the moon.

There were three little bears
sitting on chairs
and two little kittens
and a pair of mittens
and a little toyhouse
and a young mouse
and a comb and a brush
and a bowl full of mush
and a quiet old lady
who was whispering “hush.”

Good night room
Goodnight moon
Goodnight cow
jumping over the moon
Goodnight light
and the red balloon

Goodnight bears
Goodnight chairs
Goodnight kittens
and goodnight mittens

Goodnight clocks
and goodnight socks
Goodnight little house
and goodnight mouse.

Goodnight comb
and goodnight brush
Goodnight nobody
Goodnight mush
and goodnight to the old lady
whispering “hush.”

Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight noises everywhere.
-Margaret Wise Brown