Moondance represents a collection of poetry about love and relationships that I have written over the years (though some of these I have recently written). Many of these poems date back to when I was in college, during what I call my poetry-phase. At that time, I wrote exclusively poetry. I had a friend who was also a writer, and we'd exchange poems and encouraged each other. We used say that for a poem to be "good," it had to have that something extra. It had to have "oomph." So, we'd banter about whether a poem was oomphy or how to make it have more oomph. By the way, the word oomph is defined as "having the quality of being exciting, energetic, or sexually attractive."

In my experience, it's hard to actually pin down what oomph means in writing, but as a reader you kind of know it when you see it or read it or feel it. Think of poems like "The Raven," which leaves the reader with a bubbling sense of dread or T.S. Elliot's "The Hollow Men" with its sober last times: "This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper." Or Maya Angelou's triumphant declaration in the poem "Still I Rise," which shakes your soul:

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Or the sweet and soothing sounds of Emily Dickinson pondering about life, love, and simplicity. Now, those poems have oomph!

My poetry doesn't even come close to the level of "oomphness" of these great poets. To be honest, that's okay with me. Some of these poems I wrote for another person to communicate my feelings. Others I wrote on behalf of friends and family. (The poem "Golden Rings" was written for a dear friend at his wedding, where I read it at the reception.) Still, some poetry I wrote as a response to something that I just finished reading or just witnessed or just thought. For whatever reason, I hope that you can find some of these enjoyable to read.

About Point-of-View: Most of these poems are written in second person. Often the speaker in the poem is a male writing to a female. In other poems, the speaker is a female. For example, in the poem "Dreamer," a woman rebukes a would-be-suitor for his attempts at seduction. However, a few poems differ still. In "The Artist in Love," the narrator is an observer and in "Crossing the Line" the speaker is a parent (female or male) speaking to a child.

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Boring copyright statement here:

All poems in this collection are the property of the author and cannot be reproduced whole or in part without the expressed written consent of the author. This collection, though not complete yet, will be officially copyrighted within the U.S. Patent's Office. A few of these poems have been published or released in other venues. One of these poems had already been previously copyrighted and published within an anthology of poetry; however, the author retains ownership and copyright for all these poems (this poem included).

These works are fiction.  All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in any of the poems are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

You can contact the author at Chay.Avalerias-at-gmail.com.