Time Passages

Photos by Karen I. Hirsch
Poems by Michael Pogue
© 2020 Karen I. Hirsch and Michael Pogue All rights reserved

First Rays

THE AWAKENING
The day begins with the peeling of the sun
like the skin of a zesty tangerine across the sky
and the rays of light ripen our world.
The sky is glowing through the horizontal clouds
like a hot lightbulb behind white window blinds.
The dawn is opening across the horizon
like a sleepy volcano with a mouth wide open.
Today is peeling away time before.
Today is glowing in the air.
Today is opening up to fresh faces.
The light is laughing and dancing across the sky
from gold to orange then to yellow and bright white.
There’s an abundant serenity at sunrise
And the day is yet to be made.

TWILIGHT
As the day is waning, the night is stretching wings
like a condor taking flight.
The sky is dimming like the eyes of a sleepy infant
or like the eyes of a gas stove turned down low.
High, the moon is rising and posing its alabaster face
against a black canvass.
And the glow is glossing over cast-iron waters
awakening the silences echoed across gliding waves.
That lunar eye is sitting perched on top of an invisible lighthouse.
This peacefulness is hovering differently
then the warm pose of a sun’s gaze at dawn.
Darkness conjures memory
with a foggy glass against an assembly of yesterdays
making the deep bed of our dreams.

Once in A Blue Moon