Meet Me In…the Moonlight

Saturday night, I stepped out of my garage to my car and was literally struck dumb (hold your comments, please) by the sky. The clouds had cleared and before me was night’s star-filled mantle, and quite a moon to light my way.

And I thought, “Oh. Full moon time again. That explains a lot.”

I’ve been thinking, perhaps a little too much lately, of some of the meetings in my past, some chance, some not. I recall vividly one trip I took in late summer, just before my mother died. I was going to spend the day with a friend I had gotten to know via email. It was one of those rare and unquestionably “meant to be” friendships. Sadly, it didn’t last, but the memory I have of the moon that night as I drove home will forever linger.

I felt connected to it, somehow. I felt love, a powerful, powerful love, and deep peace. (I daresay I have not felt so since.) And I had had this rich fleeting encounter with someone I realized understood me better in those short hours during which we hung out together, than many people I have known for a lifetime ever will. It was a highly unusual day, and for me to drive all that way to meet someone I barely knew was very much out of character for me at the time.

But, I will never forget that moon.

This is a song the Stanley Brothers (Ralph and Carter) recorded some many years ago. The Stanleys (Carter, seated with guitar on the cd cover at left, died about 30 years ago; Dr. Ralph is still making the rounds with his son, Ralph II and occasionally his grandson) are nearly synonymous with that “high lonesome sound” that typifies early and traditional bluegrass. For those who know the film “Oh Brother,” it’s Ralph’s voice we hear singing Conversation with Death (aka “O Death”) during that awful KKK scene.

Wherever you may be, dear reader, I hope the moon is watching over you the way it did me that night.

Meet Me By The Moonlight

Meet me by the moonlight love, meet me
Meet me by the moonlight alone alone
I have a sad story to tell you
All down by the moonlight alone

I've always loved you my darling
You said I've never been true
I'd do anything just to please you
I'd die any day just for you

Meet me by the moonlight love meet me
Meet me by the moonlight alone alone
I have a sad story to tell you
All down by the moonlight alone

I have a ship on the ocean
All lined with silver and gold
And before my little darling shall suffer
I'll have the ship anchored and sold

Meet me by the moonlight love meet me
Meet me by the moonlight alone alone
I have a sad story to tell you
All down by the moonlight alone

If I had wings like an angel
Over these prison walls I would fly
I'd fly to the arms of my darling
nd there I'd be willing to die