Tuesday Poem - posted at night....

Hymn to the Night

So vast, our Goddess Night, she rises,

star-eyes gazing everywhere;

all her finery of dress displayed.

Space high and low she fills, Eternal Night,

her beauty driving out the dark.

Close on the heels of sister Day

she treads. Let darkness run...

As  you draw near, we turn for home

like birds that wing to nest.

Life everywhere retreats: man beast

and bird. Even the soaring hawk

returns to seek out rest.

Night, shield us from the wolf and thief.

Throughout your hours let there be calm.

Pitch dark has brought a shroud for me.

Dawn, drive it, like my debts, away.

Child of Day, to you, as to a calf,

my hymn is offered. Receive it now

as paean to a conqueror.

I post this because I walked out tonight, with the dog, and the sky is littered with stars - it's such a clear night here. I love the idea of night shielding us from wolf and thief. This poem comes from the Rig Veda (c.1500 - 1200 BC) and this version was translated by Edwin Gerow and Peter Dent and published in Katharine Washburn and John S. Major (eds.) Clifton Fadiman, General Editor, World Poetry, An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time, Quality Paperback Book Club, 1998.

Why don't you daydream over to The Tuesday Poem Blog and see other great offerings including our birthday poem for now we are two. Go on, have another slice of poetry.