Moonstruck

The moon is high and full and bright red tonight. Soaring … just soaring over the glittering cityscape across the water … She leaves a bright red moonpath in the Hudson … bright red! I knew she would be there tonight when I came home from the city – last night had been a moonstruck night too, although there was a bit of a fuzzy edge to one side of her – so I knew she wasn’t quite full. Tonight, as my ghetto bus emerged from the tunnel, and we swooped up on the highway made famous in the Sopranos opening credits – I peered out the window eagerly at the city – my city – across the way – looking for her. I knew she’d be there. The Hudson had a deep purplish tint to it, a startlingly weird color – very rare – and the buildings were alight – catching the dying glows of sunset. I love it when that happens: the Magic Hour of light. Gleaming shards of red glowed out of the walls of glass over there – but I was looking for something else. It’s hot today, a muggy smudgy hot – so things don’t have the clarity they normally do. The edges are blurred. It’s hard to see things clearly on such nights. Dusk makes things fuzzy. It’s not like a crisp wintry twilight, where the lights of the buildings frost up against the stark black of the sky, and you can see every corner clearly from a mile away. On a summery dusk, the river blends into the docks into the skyline into the sky, everything is charcoaled and smudged. So it took me a moment to find what I knew was there. A massive swollen glowing red moon, rising from up behind the new New York Times building – so huge that I could see the peaks on the moon mountains, and the shadows of the valleys. Oh my God, what a sight. She looked HUGE. The man I was sitting next to on the bus, a short squat man wearing a baseball cap, noticed the moon at the same time and visibly started. He glanced at me and breathed, “Wow.”

Wow, indeed.

I have spent the last 2 hours wandering up and down Boulevard East – right where Mr. Clooney and his ladyfriend had the crash (glad you’re okay, bub! Let’s remember – there’s only one degree between you and me, George! It is just a matter of time before you’re at a Thanksgiving dinner at some O’Malley home or other – so you should know I have your back – and I am glad you are okay! You crashed right near my house, bro – I probably heard it in my sleep it was that close!) Oh, where was I. The moon. I am moondrunk. I have been unable to come home until this moment. I watched her climb up through the sky – she lost the redness as she broke free of the city and the sunset – and now she beams with a brilliant light from high in the sky, unhinged, beyond reach. Her light will wake me up tonight, that’s the brightness we’re dealing with. I cannot get free of it – I walked up and down and up and down – for miles – staring up. I had some lemonade. I talked with the Trinidadian, briefly – he’s leaving for Europe next week for a couple months. We looked at the moon together and talked about it, a couple of miles away from one another. We said stuff like, “Can you believe it??” Normally, you know … I’m not into that kind of stuff. But with this moon?? Anything is possible. My feet ache from walking, I’m hungry and tired – but I couldn’t go home before I got my fill! It was just a moonrise, no big deal, but I didn’t want to miss a second of it.

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8 Responses to Moonstruck

  1. lowly geologist says:

    yes, the moon was full out in California too…you could see the Man in the Moon’s smiling face!

  2. red says:

    Geologist – I know – the shadows and mountains were soooo clear!! I took some pictures but they didn’t really come out, alas.

  3. Bernard says:

    Beautiful, Sheila.

    Somewhere I have a picture of a similar red moon rising over the shagbark hickory in my back yard. Technically it’s not by any means perfect, but it’s one of my favorites.

  4. red says:

    Bernard – I’ll have to upload the photos I took last night and see how they look. I just couldn’t get the real amazing quality of that REDness and how you could see the shadows on the moon, etc. But it was fun to walk up and down the cliff-road, and keep trying, keep looking up. One of the most amazing moons I’ve ever seen!

  5. chuck in maine says:

    Sheila,

    Isn’t this the same “Sturgeon Moon” we were all talking about last year? It’s funny I was gazing at that the other night from our porch. It seemed to fill the sky and actually put a tinted hue on the hay that had been just baled. Really cool, I tried to get pictures myself but they did not come through. I think sometimes that is nature’s way of making us pay attention to the moment instead of being able to just put it in a picture.

    Thanks for sharing your story. As usual, it was fantastic.

    Regards,

    Chuck

  6. red says:

    You know, Chuck – I was thinking about that old post as I looked up at the moon – and thinking; now: is this a hunter’s moon? A harvest moon? What is it??? Sturgeon Moon, of course!!

  7. I remember that moon, and I took a picture of it with my scope. At the risk of being labeled a blog-whore, here are the links:

    http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2007/01/little-rock.html

    http://15minutelunch.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-moon-you-all.html

  8. red says:

    Johnny – your comment went into some weird moderation limbo – I don’t know why!!

    Those photos are INCREDIBLE!!!

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