Starry Starry Love...

I have a new love. A long, lost love.

The Night Sky!

A friend has shared with me a new passion for learning the constellations

and other such things whose terminology

I am just in the beginning stages of learning.

But even though a new love, it feels like an old love.

I'm like a teenager again, in the throes,

but with an entity that gives me,

rather than angst,

immense feelings of beauty and joy.

Several times a day I look at the sky and smile,

impatiently awaiting our next Night Sky rendezvous together.

But like a secret love, I never know when that will be.

Clear evening skies in the Pacific Northwest's

winter (and spring and fall) months

-with which to study, gaze, learn and commune-

are a rare treat.

The day teases me with patches or clearings of blue sky,

what I excitedly hope are foreshadowings of a later tryst

when the cloak spills over everything.

And each night, I step outside my door with great hope.

Sometimes my evening dance card is filled

though I always check before bed to see if a short,

bundled up, moonless kiss might be possible.

And sometimes my Night Sky's dance card has been filled

with high clouds and fog who refuse to share.
Granted, recent low temperatures tend to add to

my already full-on Aries low-patience level.

And lately it's been cold enough that my thrice-nightly sojourns

out onto the deck to glean possible sightings

is fraught with scarves, gloves and ice under my feet.

So I don't wait long, just long enough to wink back at a few stars peeking out

or simply sigh at the blank screen

of weather pattern technical difficulties

(for Night Sky viewing trysts).

My very first recollection of the sensation of Awe

was the summer night sky of the Sierra Nevada mountains when I was 13.

I'd seen the night sky before but NEVER in it's full,

magnificent, clear mountain air glory

(which doesn't even begin to describe it)!

And here I am again, feeling 13, impatient and waiting for Christmas

only to find nightly that fog

has stolen the presents again.

(Photo courtesy of PDPhoto.org)