Under the Beaver Moon; Yon rising Moon that looks for us again
The Beaver Moon is the name traditionally given to the full moon that occurs in November. It originates from Native American and early colonial folklore in North America and is tied to the seasonal cycles of nature and human activity. Moonrise, Hernandez , New Mexico , one of Ansel Adams ' most famous photos. Photographed on November 1, 1941 I was rummaging through old books, looking for the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins , and came across a beautifully printed volume of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , the Astronomer Poet of Persia . It was a strange find, as earlier that day I had been chatting with a friend whose longing for his Persian roots was clear, though unspoken. The conversation had turned to Iran , to lost worlds, to wisdom and trust—threads we both seemed to follow but couldn’t quite name. Khayyam was there in the pages, living. Accepting life, with all its fleeting pleasure and its deep melancholia. This particular volume, the twenty-third edition, printed in 1887, he...
