Saturday, January 27, 2007

ave maria

Thoughts arrive like butterflies. They land and linger on my leaves, begging me to write a net of words to capture their beauty. But I am over mesmerised and they escape every time.

One such butterfly of thought concerns the seas of the moon. Every few months they get a mention in something I read and I remember how much I want to write about them. But I can never begin. Something about their beauty combined with baroness, their uninhabited extreme, always leaves me speechless.


The dark patches that we can see on the moon are known as lunar maria (mare in the singular). They are dry plains created by volcanic eruption, reflecting less light, hence their dark appearance. They were named maria (from the Latin) by early astronomers, who mistook them for seas. The moon is also home to lakes, marshes, bays and an ocean.

But its their names more than their notion that draw me in. Particularly alluring to me is the Sea of Clouds set to turn the world upside down, and the Sea of the Edge, harking back to the days when the world was flat. I long to linger beside the Lake of Dreams and drown slowly in the Lake of Time. I could drag myself reluctantly from the Marsh of Sleep if only to behold the Bay of Rainbows.


And so I’ll settle to offer you a few scraps about them. And the thought that with names like those its no wonder I feel I am living in the wrong place.

3 comments:

jo :: feather and thread said...

I remember a question from childhood Trivial Pursuit games 'Where is the Sea of Tranquility?' Others would be caught out by the question but I would never forget the answer. I have always thought it might be a nice place to bathe if only there was water...

Anonymous said...

Those places seem wasted on the moon, although they fit so perfectly there. I wonder whether this earth would be a better place if more care was taken with place names. I can't imagine violence or intolerance being a problem in the Bay of Rainbows...

fjl said...

Wonderful. Ave. And I love the butterflies. Don't go personalising those symbols too much though eh? x