Queer creative, writer, artist, poet, witch and activist Indigo Moon shares ‘Only Star’ and other poems from a collection she created for her recent MA Environmental Humanities, showcasing the natural world and its changes over a human lifespan.400 words: estimated reading time = 2 minutes
Each of these poems takes inspiration from the great American poet, Emily Dickinson, and how she allowed her imagination and dazzling insight to run free in her poetry. Each moment allows for deep reflection, creative wildness and empowerment.
Photograph: Indigo Moon © 2022Only Star
Daffodils are the birth of spring
Yellow paints the fields,
and become the shield
Bumblebees collect heliotrope nectar
and butterflies travel far
Splendour to the eye
does blossom eradicate the scar,
I wish to get lost in the meadows
and become the Sun’s only star.
Crescendo
My brain has a song
that has no chorus,
just a multicoloured verse
where I ask the ravens
and dragonflies,
help me find where the crescendo lies.
The Wing
Silent is the wing
that flies north
to the power line,
where winds buckle
and rains are unkind
Clouds that travel
are as arcane as
volcanic ash
when there’s no eruption.
A Brush to Fingertip
Rhythm marauding
at the back rooms
cups a check,
brushes a lip,
their fingertip,
a grace to my outline,
a decadent sweet,
a most thriving constellation.
Threads
Birds, bumblebees, blossom,
Distract me now
or confront the wind
and tell it of home
Fair – in case of this thread
and glimmer peace in my sacred bed.
Doubt of Birds
Can you doubt – a flock of birds,
instinctual, their wings synchronised,
destination felt
by currents of wind and water
When this, you, I, becomes the bird,
we never want to walk again.
Photograph: Indigo Moon © 2022Find out more
Three of these poems have featured in the pages for creative contributions to our Environmental Keywords series, where Indigo generously offered her responses to the words ‘Justice’, ‘Resilience’ and ‘Transitions’. And she previously contributed a poem, ‘Frozen’, to Day 16 of our Quarantine Connection series during the first UK Covid lockdown in 2020.
You can read Indigo’s previous post for ClimateCultures, I am Purpose — a short story evoking ideas of conversation with the universe to illuminate times of zoonotic pandemic and climate crisis and reflect on the presence of signals from within.
And you can explore Creative Being, the site and community Indigo created to inspire positive change and amplify marginalised voices, interviewing artists, writers and activists.
