In my introduction to the poem “Stars,” I explained that “Moonshine” was its twin, written later the same weekend, and likely as an attempt to deal with the same themes in a poem that wasn’t free verse. However, Moonshine—also written in a courtyard at Caltech at night, this time the main courtyard in the modular housing where Caltech’s South House dorms had been relocated—doesn’t really make too much of an effort at regular rhythm or rhyme, either.
“Moonshine”
January 2006 in Pasadena, California
The moon shines down on cities
as she shines upon the seas:
And though we brighten the city light,
our myriad lamps cannot hide her glow–
the flames the Titan gave us are too dim
to outshine the Huntress’s power.
The moon shines down on cities
as she shines upon the plains:
The laws and tools Athena gave us
allow us build e’er higher, e’er stronger,
and yet we cannot forget the old wild ways
and rebuild ourselves in the Grey-Eyed’s form.
The moon shines down on cities
as she shines upon the wilds:
And though the arts Apollo gave us
have made us say we’re civilized,
it was the Huntress who raised us and so
we cannot forget the wild ways.