Who Shall Measure?

From my highest hill
I watched for Antares.
Brief would be his glimmer
Where the long line of mountains
Duped the horizon
With vague, rambling mist.

And I shall never know
If that was Antares’
Eye on the earth-line,
Or the gleam of a lantern
The wild poet carried;
For God who saw both
Only laughs when I ask him.

—Olive Tilford Dargan (1869–1968), Lute and Furrow, 1922

Galactic gathering

Standing in a silent still-dark February morning
Cool dewy grass grazes half-bare sandaled feet
Lo! Saturn arrives as Jupiter saddles Sagittarius
Mars burns red near the glowing crescent moon
Serpens slithers against a vaporous galaxy border
Antares winks green and gold, crimson and rust
As Scorpius swings its tail at the southern horizon
Libra starboard and upward of the crowded scene
Balancing askew over the poor impaled lone wolf
Ophiuchus a bystander in the busy celestial show

—Terri Guillemets

Sky-happy

foggy heavy-gray teary-eyed low-hanging
snow-stuffed melancholy winter clouds

impulsive wayward turbulent thick-swift-dark
tempestuous hail-angered storm clouds

sprinkling lighthearted fanciful breeze-drifted
rainbow-nestled April-hued springtime clouds

enormous white-fluffy fairydust-fringed
frolicsome sun-illumed carefree summer clouds

thunderous intense restless rain-soaked
lightning-streaked July-dyed monsoon clouds

azure-skylit sunglow-slanted edge-gleaming
white-silver billowy contemplative autumn clouds

vivid vibrant blissful dawn-lit joy-beamed
daybreak-florid sunrise-tinted morning clouds

aimless airy midday-lazy wandering listless
mountaintop-floating leisurely afternoon clouds

amber-ablaze day’s-end-pink ephemeral-amethyst
evening-welcome smoky-embered sunset clouds

lambent star-flanked luminous moon-halo’d
glowing shadow-painted skygazers’ night clouds

—Terri Guillemets