Poetry published in Blue Heron Review
"Waxing Crescent Moon" in Spring 2024 issue on Transformation and Change
Hello Readers:
I am pleased to share that my poem "Waxing Crescent Moon" was published in Blue Heron Review's Spring 2024 edition, which focused on the theme of “Transformation and Change.”
Blue herons have special significance for me (as do all birds) so it was meaningful to be included in this particular literary journal. I love the cover by artist Fiona Capuano.
This poem appeared here in Dispatches from the Heartland last fall so may be familiar to some readers.
You can read it by clicking on the link above and I have also pasted it below.
As always, I welcome your comments and thank you for your continued readership.
Suzanna
Waxing Crescent Moon
The moon was full
the night before you died,
beaming so brightly I had to
look away from the brilliance
of the glowing sky.
By your birthday the moon
had emptied itself inside out,
the night sky hollow. I looked
to the heavens for reason
or direction, but clouds
covered the stars.
Time will heal, they say, but
I disagree. Time simply passes
and the moon keeps moving
in her phases, pulling us
along from shadow to light.
Today she has reemerged,
a sliver, a glimmer, a tiny hook
hanging in the darkest night,
taking a first step toward fullness,
expanding, increasing.
I can gaze at her now,
so small, so sweet, offering
a gentle invitation to return
to the living, a comfort
looming in the dusk, beckoning
quietly, a hopeful moon.
Suzanna C de Baca is a native Iowan, proud Latina, publisher, author, and artist. A member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, her poetry has been published in numerous literary publications and anthologies, including Best of Choeofpleirn Press, Our Silent Voices Anthology, The Letter Review, and Black Fox Literary Magazine. She is the recipient of the Derick Burleson Poetry Award, winner of the Fox Tails Contest, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Your poem is as lovely and powerful as it was the first time I read it ❤️. Thank you.
It is so hard to think of new birth when there is a death, but you have done it so well.