{"id":261318,"date":"2024-05-06T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=261318"},"modified":"2024-04-30T08:44:02","modified_gmt":"2024-04-30T07:44:02","slug":"facts-about-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/05\/facts-about-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts about the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/moon.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-180793\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/moon-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/moon-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/moon-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/moon.jpg 976w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The moon is backing away from us<br \/>\nan inch and a half each year. That means<br \/>\nif you\u2019re like me and were born<br \/>\naround fifty years ago the moon<br \/>\nwas a full six feet closer to the earth.<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s a person supposed to do?<br \/>\nI feel the gray cloud of consternation<br \/>\ntravel across my face. I begin thinking<br \/>\nabout the moon-lit past, how if you go back<br \/>\nfar enough you can imagine the breathtaking<br \/>\nhugeness of the moon, prehistoric<br \/>\nsolar eclipses when the moon covered the sun<br \/>\nso completely there was no corona, only<br \/>\na darkness we had no word for.<br \/>\nAnd future eclipses will look like this: the moon<br \/>\na small black pupil in the eye of the sun.<br \/>\nBut these are bald facts.<br \/>\nWhat bothers me most is that someday<br \/>\nthe moon will spiral right out of orbit<br \/>\nand all land-based life will die.<br \/>\nThe moon keeps the oceans from swallowing<br \/>\nthe shores, keeps the electromagnetic fields<br \/>\nin check at the polar ends of the earth.<br \/>\nAnd please don\u2019t tell me<br \/>\nwhat I already know, that it won\u2019t happen<br \/>\nfor a long time. I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m afraid<br \/>\nof what will happen to the moon.<br \/>\nForget us. We don\u2019t deserve the moon.<br \/>\nMaybe we once did but not now<br \/>\nafter all we\u2019ve done. These nights<br \/>\nI harbor a secret pity for the moon, rolling<br \/>\naround alone in space without<br \/>\nher milky planet, her only child, a mother<br \/>\nwho\u2019s lost a child, a bad child,<br \/>\na greedy child or maybe a grown boy<br \/>\nwho\u2019s murdered and raped, a mother<br \/>\ncan\u2019t help it, she loves that boy<br \/>\nanyway, and in spite of herself<br \/>\nshe misses him, and if you sit beside her<br \/>\non the padded hospital bench<br \/>\noutside the door to his room you can\u2019t not<br \/>\ntake her hand, listen to her while she<br \/>\nweeps, telling you how sweet he was,<br \/>\nhow blue his eyes, and you know she\u2019s only<br \/>\nromanticizing, that she\u2019s conveniently<br \/>\nforgotten the bruises and booze,<br \/>\nthe stolen car, the day he ripped<br \/>\nthe phones from the walls, and you want<br \/>\nto slap her back to sanity, remind her<br \/>\nof the truth: he was a leech, a fuckup,<br \/>\na little shit, and you almost do<br \/>\nuntil she lifts her pale puffy face, her eyes<br \/>\ntwo craters and then you can\u2019t help it<br \/>\neither, you know love when you see it,<br \/>\nyou can feel its lunar strength, its brutal pull.<\/p>\n<p>__________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dorianne-Laux.jpeg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-261319\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dorianne-Laux.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"92\" height=\"92\" \/><\/a>Dorianne Laux, born 10 Jan 1952, is a North American poet. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The moon is backing away from us<br \/>\nan inch and a half each year. That means<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":180793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-261318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261318"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261321,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261318\/revisions\/261321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}