Someone's Moon

A visual poem about Earth

Dear readers,

“Someone’s Moon” is a visual poem I have been thinking about creating ever since I looked at a very bright Moon one night. Here it is.

Someone's Moon

The Moon can shine very bright, although…

Its light is just a reflection of the Sun’s light.

This means any object in the universe can shine,

Even Earth.

Can you imagine the Earth being

Someone’s Moon?

They would look at the sky and say:

“Look, the Earth is out again! It’s so pretty.”

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This is exactly what I thought upon seeing the Moon that night. I also talked to my husband, who is an astrophysicist, about how much less the Earth shines in comparison to the Moon. It is of blue color and it has an atmosphere, both of which absorb some of the light, while that is not the case with the Moon.

I looked up the photos of the Earth taken from the Moon and I was glad to find out the Earth does shine a fair bit. My drawing of the Earth is inspired by the Earthrise photo taken by the Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968. This is the second-ever photo of the Earth taken from the Moon’s orbit. The first one was in black and white from the same voyage.

However, the main inspiration for “Someone’s Moon” was not my fascination with the universe. It was more the fact that I feel like I have been trying to find ways to see the beauty on this planet all my life.

Sometimes the beauty of nature and people is so clear. These are the moments we feel alive. But more often than not, the ugliness and harshness of people and nature come to the forefront. And then it is very hard to see its beauty.

A pacifist call of desperation

I’ve been feeling like I should say something about the genocide and war in Gaza, but I find myself at a loss for words. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because wars and genocides have been happening every single day of my existence on this planet. And by now, I think that will never change.

I shout that I am against any form of violence, but I find my voice silenced. I say I don’t want to be a citizen of any country, because all of them have blood on their hands, but I don’t have a choice. I am a citizen and my hands are bloody too. Institutions that teach me and wealth that pays me are founded on corpses.

I still find myself on Earth and I see horror first. I can never escape it. No one can, but especially those dying at hands of other humans, right now! This is not a statement, this is a call of desperation to other humans. A call to live without war.

All it takes to start a war is one person wanting to start it because the rest will listen. Well, here is a shocking proposition: Let us not listen! Let us never listen!

Until next time,

Ana