Tribute to the "Blue Moon" on New Year's Eve...The Moon

She is a lamp;

Her light is turned on deliberately

and shaded just so

in a calculated effort

to attract

and in this way,

night after night, she relies

on the moth’s longing for incandescence

to prove her own irresistibility;

But you,

You are the moon,

naked and true with nothing to prove;

the sun has chosen you

and you alone to reflect his brilliance;

What then do you need with moths?

Wolves and coyotes call to you,

lovers beg your favor,

poets invoke your name,

The seas rise and fall at your command

and I, on this journey through the night,

would surely lose my way if it were not

for your gentle light illuminating my path.

---Phillip Rosenberg, from Raised in the Shadow Moon

Painting, 2008, by Louise LeBourgeois