Changing, Shifting Perspectives, On Sarah: September Moon, Mars Due East, Orion South Southwest, Marigold Petals Floating In Flower Water Poem by Dennis Ryan

Friday morning, September 8, 2023 at 5: 55 a.m.; Wednesday morning, September 13 at 8: 09 a.m.; early Thursday morning, September 14 at 1: 52 a.m. and later at 7: 24 a.m.; then Friday morning, September 15 at 7: 10 a.m.; Thursday morning, September 21, 2023, begun at 8 a.m, and finished at 8: 14 a.m.

—this poem is for Sarah Jakes who inspired its composition; whether she claims it or not is another matter entirely

'I've never seen the same moon twice …
This is the moment, the one that defines you…'
—Biz Colletti, 'This Is The Moment', You Tube Music Video

Early this morning, from our back deck, I see
a crescent moon directly overhead, Mars due
east, Orion south-southwest though largely hidden
from view by trees, and the Pleiades directly north,
running away from me, largely ignored as I am; and
then … I walk through the house out the front door
to experience a different view, a changed perspective:
a clear black sky now largely empty of trees, Mars,
the Pleiades now appearing that much more distant
from the focal moon, the truth of the situation how
much farther distant from my understanding of it?
Ambiguity. Shifting Perspectives. Shifting, Nagging …
Nagging Uncertainty. Multiple perspectives can produce
multiple truth … in perpetuity? Dime, tell me, you tell me, Sarah. Sarah, tell me the true of this matter, the situation—
your silences are deafening, and, as I wrote previously
in a poem, 'fill me with fear of the unknown'. Life is relation:
what we know in relation to what we don't, and it's what we
don't know that maims, kills us. Sarah, what are you hiding?
I just picked some garden flowers—zinnias and marigolds,
am now putting them in a long-necked vase full of flower
water, golden marigold crowns splayed, the bright yellow
petals dropping off into the water—yellow floats, glides
sinking below, down into murkiness, invisibility, sliding
away into nothingness, emptiness, absence—I embrace
it all, all the nothingness, the terrifying ambiguity. I need
to embrace it all, including my darkest failures if I hope
to survive the test, the ordeal that awaits me come this
October and November—my heart-soul's ultimate test.