Tuesday Poem

0.0000000406 light years away

Moon calligraphy

The images in this short clip are a tiny fragment of an ongoing poem titled Alphabets of Light - a 'poem without end' if you will. I began this piece in 2004 when my life took a series of dramatic turns. I found myself traveling, unexpectedly and to far-flung places (Antarctica, Edinburgh, Berlin, the US, back to Africa. . . ). I'd always thought of myself as a home-body so being away from my nest required some adjustment, not only for me but for my loved ones.

I took to photographing the full moon as a way of documenting where I was at different times, whether at home or away. It was like throwing out an anchor, I suppose - a 'sky hook' (to borrow a term from a friend) - that offered me a sense of comfort and connection. As a child I can remember feeling reassured by the thought that no matter where in the world we are, we're all under the same sky.

The twenty-six moons featured in this sample clip were captured in our Northern and Southern hemisphere skies between 2004 and 2007. (Meantime, I'm continuing to take photographs... )

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