Like many in the writing community, I was devastated to learn of Scott Beebe‘s recent passing. Scott was one of the most encouraging and enthusiastic members of the vibrant writing community on twitter, hosting prompts such as #poetryin13 and #converstory, and publishing anthologies both based on those prompts and about other themes. We are all poorer for his loss.
Scott published my work in a number of anthologies, and I thank him for that, but my favorite is Prompting The Moon, which to which he specifically asked me to submit, and in which I published my “Moonlight Sonnet,” which is probably my favorite poem I’ve written thus far. I would not have written it without Scott’s encouragement. My story is but one of so many stories where Scott inspired so many of us.
I’ve shared that poem in this space before, but allow me to do so again, in memory of Scott Beebe.
When I gaze up at its dark, inky gloom,
The sky reflects my sorrows back at me–
Like the vampire’s victim, I’m fit to swoon,
Surrendering to my melancholy.
The burdens, heavy, of my working day
Weigh down on me and hang like darkening clouds,
Which hide the bright orb’s stately face away
Obscured by night’s aphotic, murky shroud.
But with the glimmer of her tender light,
A sliver of hope in my heart doth grow–
Waxing gibbous, though not yet full tonight,
Beneath Selene’s benevolent, pale glow.
Like the werewolf by her light’s transformèd,
By moonlight, my self to me’s restorèd.
Rest in peace, Scott.
A. A. Rubin 
One thought on “Moonlight Sonnet, In Memoriam, Scott Beebe”