THE MOON IN YOUR HANDS

If you take the moon in your hands
and turn it round (heavy, slightly tarnished platter),
you're there;

if you pull dry seaweed from the sand
and turn it round
and wonder at the underside's bright amber,
your eyes

look out as they did here
(you don't remember)
when my soul turned round,
perceiving the other side of everything,
mullein leaf, dogwood leaf, moth wing
and dandelion seed under the ground.

 

"The Moon in Your Hands" by H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), from COLLECTED POEMS: 1912-1944, copyright ©1982 by The Estate of Hilda Doolittle. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.