Posts Tagged ‘night sky’
snowfall and summer
~
envy
~
in the hammock
the snow rocks
gently, enthralled by
whispers
of fireflies
owl calls
~
wind harasses
the pines
mutters them miserable
snow fall ceases
stars punctuate
indigo sky
~
snow dwindles
shrinks and sublimates
the hammock cradles
a frail cadaver, swings
in obedience to
winter storm
~
~
Copyright Jane Tims 2013
in the circle of the evergreen wreath
Every year, during Advent, I either purchase or make a wreath of evergreens to celebrate the coming of Christmas. Last year, making the wreath, I had a little help. Zoë decided the perfect place to perch herself was within the circle of the wreath.
Our wreath materials were all obtained on our lake property. The species we used for our wreath were:
- White Pine (Pinus Strobus L.)
- White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) also known as Arbor Vitae
- Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.)
- Common Juniper (Juniperus communis L.) -the variety we used was too prickly and I won’t use it again.
~
At this time of Advent, we wait in the darkest days of the year for Christmas. The wreath is one of the most endearing symbols of this wait. Made of evergreens, it speaks to the concept of everlasting love. To count down the Sundays before Christmas, we light purple and pink candles to symbolize ideas of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The lighted candles also represent bringing light into the world.
The wreath is another of those symbols borrowed from pagan times, when the circle represented the ever-changing seasons and the circle of life. The evergreen stood for the part of life that survives the winter season and candles symbolized light shining through darkness.
~
~
gathering green
~
in the space between solstice
and the whisper of stars
in a herded sky
daylight shrinks, always one hour
short of rested
~
in the thicket we gather
armloads, garlands of green
fragrances of cedar and pine
red dogwood twigs
stems of red berry, alder cones
curved boughs of fir
~
flexible as mattress coils, piled on ground
to rest, await brief
overlap, longest night
and feathering of angel down
~
watch, through the trees
the struggle
planet light
and pagan fire
~
~
© Jane Tims 2012
keeping watch for dragons #8 – campfire dragon
Late summer is the time for campfires. We have to be careful, of course, to make sure there is no risk of forest fire and campfires are permitted. But on an evening when the fire index hotline says OK, and we have a small stack of wood beside the fire pit and a bench for sitting, there is no better way to pass an evening.
Campfires are great places for telling stories. They are also good places to dream and remember. A campfire means getting smoke in your eyes, so the images can be a little blurry. You can watch the sparks lift from the fire and ascend into the dark night. The question is, are they also watching you … ?
~
~
campfire dragons
~
dragons prowl
in balsam
back crawl in amber
blisters of pitch
~
dragons lurk
under mantles of smoke
blacken the stones
spurt throatfuls of fire
~
dragons leap
to the Drago sky
watch us grow small
with sparking eyes
~
close their lids
and sleep in flight
~
~
© Jane Tims 1998
places off-planet #5 – Comet Hale-Bopp 1996
Comet Hale-Bopp could be seen from Earth in late 1996 and early 1997. Its strange name is from the independent co-discoverers, Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp. Hale-Bopp was a large comet, with a nucleus of about 60 miles in diameter. It had two visible tails, one of gas and one of dust, and had a third tail of sodium. It has been called the most-observed comet in history. Hale-Bopp won’t be back until 4385!
I have no specific memory of Hale-Bopp itself, although I do remember a common saying in our household in 1997 was to greet almost every out-of-place object with “Hail! Bopp!”. The poem I wrote after seeing the comet is all I have to know how it appeared to me.
Do you remember seeing Hale-Bopp?
photo from Wikimedia Commons, taken by Philipp Salzgeber
~
~
Hale-Bopp
also a comet
~
Hail! bright star
~
a flare in the western sky
a diamond
~
a sparkler
embedded in smoke
~
~
© Jane Tims 1997
places off-planet #4 – Comet Hyakutake 1996
Comet Hyakutake had a nucleus of about 2 km in diameter and a tail-length of 570 million km. The Ulysses spacecraft is known to have flown through Haykutake’s tail. One of the comet’s notable characteristics was its blue-green color. It was bright to the naked eye for only a few days.
I remember Hyakutake as a ‘knock-you-off-your-feet’ surprise. I knew it could be seen, but I hadn’t made any effort to look for it. One night as I arrived home, I saw it shining through the trees at the end of the driveway, and climbed the snowbank at the end of the drive to investigate. I saw the comet and literally stumbled backward in amazement!
Did you see Comet Hyakutake in 1996?
photo is from Wikimedia Commons
taken by E. Kolmhofer and H. Raab of the Johannes-Kepler-Observatory
~
~
Hyakutake
a comet
~
she runs in the solar wind
pale night woman
her face to the sun
hair and petals streaming
~
ephemeral, strewn in whispers
soft fistfuls of light
tresses tangled
in the fingers of the forest
~
~
© Jane Tims 1997
places off-planet #3 – Halley’s Comet 1986
Halley’s Comet, first recorded by astronomers in 240 BCE, has been a regular visitor through the ages, although people did not realise they were seeing the same comet until astronomer Edmund Halley determined this in 1705. Halley’s Comet makes an elliptical orbit of the sun and returns to view approximately every 75 years. It was last seen in 1986. Halley’s Comet is composed of dust, ice water and other frozen gasses, and was described by astronomer Fred Whipple as a ‘dirty snowball’. Its nucleus is 15 km long, 8 km wide and 8 km thick; its tail is as much as 100 million km long!
We saw Halley’s Comet as a family, waking in the middle of the night, and driving to a nearby hill overlooking a big field with French Lake and its treeless wetlands in the distance. The night sky was overcast with a thin high-elevation cloud, so our view was not the best. However, to me, it was marvellous… a huge (relative to the size of the stars) ball of fuzzy light. My son can barely remember our watch on the hillside, all swathed in blankets. However, when it returns in 2061 and he is 78 years old, he will be able to say he saw it twice!
Photo from Wikimedia Commons, taken by Kuiper Airborne Observatory
~
~
Halley’s 1987
~
we choose a roadside watching place
beside a farmer’s field
across from the cemetery
few trees
few lights
~
we set the alarm for three
coax one another
into the icy car
in awe for an hour
at the comet fuzzy indistinct
four fingers above the horizon
~
too undefined, too faint
for the dirty snowball
they predicted
I scrape our breath from the window
I see it, says my son, only three
I think
~
he sleeps between us until ten o’clock
his blanket a soft ball
pressed to his nose
~
almost eighty
he waits for the return
~
I saw it when I was only young
I think
~
~
© Jane Tims 1997
places off-planet #2 – three comets
In my life so far, I have seen three major comets – Halley’s Comet in 1986, Hyakutake in 1996, and Hale-Bopp in 1997. There have been comets since then, I know, but I have always been asleep!
A comet is composed of a ‘nucleus’ of rock, dust and frozen gas, and a tail. The tail is formed when the gasses in the nucleus are heated by the sun and create an atmosphere or ‘coma’. The sun’s radiation and the solar wind cause the coma to flow away from the sun as a tail. Since the comet can be moving away from the sun, sometimes this means the comet moves in the direction of its tail!
How many comets have you seen?
~
~
Comet
~
from the Greek
koman
~
to wear long hair
~
© Jane Tims 1997
places off-planet #1 – watching the stars
For me, star-gazing is a warm-weather activity. The winter, although dazzling in its displays of stars, is too cold for my arthritic joints and the immobility of prolonged star study.
So, as May approaches, I am looking forward to spending some time outside, to locate some old friends in the sky and to meet some new sky-folk!
I am lucky to live in an area not overly polluted with night light. At our home, although trees make viewing sporadic, stray light from street and yard lights is not a problem. At our lake property, the surroundings are utterly dark and the sky is stunning, studded with stars.
If you want to do some stargazing, you need three things to get a good start:
- a star chart or a planisphere (a combination of a star chart and a viewer). My favourite planisphere is downloadable and printable, from the National Research Council at
http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/education/astronomy/constellations/html.html
- a reclining lawn chair (so you can relax and your neck will not ache)
- a flashlight with a clear red cover (this is to prevent your eyes from becoming light-adapted as you check the star-chart).
Another helpful item, to see groupings of stars more clearly, or to see details of the moon:
- a pair of binoculars
Are you a stargazer? What are your favorite ‘tools-of-the-trade’?
~
~
the search for wind
and stars
`
these are not the winds I sought to stand in
I wanted a zephyr to ruffle the bluets in spring
a breeze to whip the silver wind chime to frenzy
~
instead I cower from night moans
the rattle at the window
the street where a dust daemon lurks
near every wall, lifts the leaves
grinds them to powder
~
I gaze at the skies
watch for Altair and Orion
the never- random pulse to signal man
~
but all the lights in the night sky
are not stars
the moon who solemn watches
as his face is peeled away
the comet drawing scant thoughts across darkness
its tears a storm of falling stars
~
I walk with sorrow
it rests behind the eyes
and cannot swell to tears
~
the truth so simple
yet impossible to know-
you need only stand
and the hill will form beneath your feet
and the roaring shrink
to the breath of love across your face
~
© Jane Tims 2012
