This is a poem that took a few days to solidify. The original poem, which I’ll share below, had a logical problem where the moon was angry with the sun because it could not see the scene from the first stanza–a foggy night in Maine (with a new moon).

Even the darkest of nights without the moon to illuminate it has light. Eventually if there is no light pollution the stars themselves will offer light.

The only dark I’ve ever really experienced was while spelunking once, so far into the cave that when my flashlight was off there was nothing to see.

Even with my eyes closed there is light unless, of course, I cover them completely.

Here is the original poem–which I was fond of until I worked through it with my poetry mentor (read that exchange here).

foggy nights in Maine are frog-filled too,
croaks and bellows synced with cricket
chirps, snaps of branches, loons,

the new moon, too, hidden in the fog–
though unseen even so–her face turned
away from this cacophonous bliss–

is surely angry at the sun–who hides 
such haunted nights away–who has
no word for Dark except not day

Ultimately the logic of the poem bothered me too much to keep this version.

Also the face of the moon is always pointing toward us so we always see the same side, or part of the same side. The “dark side of the moon” is actually lit during a new moon.

I love Maine. We are vacationing there on Hancock Pond in July.

I can’t say that I love fog, though. I appreciate it. I understand it.

I simply love a summer night in Maine, new moon or not.

I didn’t use the “em dash” here. I like it, but it seems a bit too long, at least with the font I use.

I’m not sure if I should have capitalized “Dark” in the last stanza. It is a Dickinsonian thing to do, as are the hyphens, as is the last line “not day”.

The featured image here is of a portico in Bologna, Italy. Bologna was a magical place to walk around, porticoes everywhere, so many of them having this distinct architecture. Here I turn it on its side. At any angle it is complex and appealing. On its side it has a snap to it that I like.