This is our 8th Poetry Party! These are posted every other Monday. I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog if you have one (not required to participate!)
Feel free to post the poem along with my image below on your blog with a link back to this post. Please invite your readers to come join the party too!
I love the rhythms of the moon’s waxing and waning and long to find ways to integrate an awareness of her cycles into my own spiritual practice. This past weekend was the full moon. We had some clear skies around Seattle and for a couple of nights while at my hermitage I was blessed with a clear vision of the moon rising in the sky gently illuminating the world with her radiance. I could even see the Olympic mountains across the horizon, the moon’s light reflecting on their snow-covered peaks. I took the photo below as it was rising behind my cottage on Friday night through the bare branches. I did not have my tripod and so tried holding the camera myself. The result was a blurry image, but I like the effect, almost like a watercolor. Then I added some colorizing in Photoshop to get the bluish hue.
What is your ode to the moon? What does she stir in you?
*****
Cycles:
Guardian of night
keep my secrets
wound in your silver net,
hold them tight to your bosom
as you drift back in time
as you slip into space.
Remember me.
Come back to me, Guardian.
Reveal to me my secrets
Anew!
Now dreams
to plant in the coming day,
now gifts
rich with promise.
~Dawn @ Wild Yarn
***
A tanka poem:
Rising through
all of my inconsistencies,
the frost moon. . .
her amaranthine light shines
into my grateful journal.
–b’oki
*****
WINTER FULL MOON RISING
Winter full moon rising
casts a whispery river of light
across my bedsheets.
Climbing into the ready boat
I sail, while overhead,
supernal geese squawk loudly
at this pajama-clad pilgrim.
Trees on the shore nod slowly
having seen this sight before.
Needing neither oars nor rudders,
but only a heart for our Creator,
I gently journey mapless
toward the advent of tomorrow.
-Rich Murray at Pilgrim Path
*****
Such sweet lunacy,
your tidal pull
through my salty blood.
I am liquid being,
boundaries wavering
and thin as light.
-Tess Marshall at Anchors and Masts
*****
In frosty November twilight,
“Moon When the Cold Comes”
emerged from a thin line of cloud.
Arc,
chord,
segment,
growing to
a perfect circle,
above a spinning sphere.
Beautiful geometry.
-Elaine at Edible Balcony Garden
*****
once-in-a-life time
highway eighty-four ran due east across the
Central Texas night, I remember the moon
rising over the top of the telephone poles
the road was lonely enough for me to turn
my headlights off in deference and drive
in the dark to the light as if I would reach it
every Sunday night after, I drove and waited
for the moon, but it happened only once
how does one keep once-in-a-life time?
all the sands in the hourglass aren’t enough
to make a beach to hold a tide to pull
the moon close again, close enough for me
to turn off my lights and trust what I can’t see
to find myself lost in the night and light
I don’t drive that way much anymore
down all the days, could it be enough now
to say, one night I drove into the moon
and not need it to happen ever again?
-Milton Brasher-Cunningham at Don’t Eat Alone
*****
Shards of flashing crystal radiance
Crying to me from a eerie slate sky
Shivery!
-Suz Reaney
*****
Moon Haiku
Glowing orb returns,
silver rains through windowpane
Luminous Goddess…
-Kathy Flugel Stone
*****
Remember that winter evening when you rose over the mountains
Dawning in a fiery glow
And so huge that I thought that you had changed your address
and moved into my neighborhood?
Your golden charm found its mark and I knew that it was a moment
not to be missed.
But, well, you know, I was driving a car.
I had someplace to be
though now I don’t remember where
and so I kept going.
I really thought that you would be there when I got back.
I thought that you would wait for me.
But when I returned
You were small and diminished
Floating away from me
Like a childhood balloon
That had escaped my grasp.
-Rebecca Johnson
*****
Lady Luna in the sky
Casting your light upon me
Her silvery glow
Lets my positive spirit flow
and drenches others in friendship.
As I sit under her face of wonder
I ponder whether she was
made for the stars
or they for her.
Give me a silver ring
a shining pendant
None adds up to her beautiful face.
Lady Luna,
Your light falls upon me.
-Annie Thorndike (age 9)
*****
Cosmic Punctuality
Lightly stepped a yellow star
To its lofty place —
Loosed the Moon her silver hat
From her lustral Face —
All of Evening softly lit
As an Astral Hall —
Father, I observed to Heaven,
You are punctual.
-Emily Dickinson (shared by Kigen)
*****
“illuminating darkness”
full moon speaks her truth
bold & brilliant
shining for all to see
illuminating darkness
floating in the sky
moving & shifting
glistening & hiding
illuminating darkness
mother moon
shines her iridescent self
for all the world to see
illuminating darkness
children of the womb
stand in awe &
adore full mother moon
illuminating darkness
“illuminating darkness”
full moon speaks her truth
bold & brilliant
shining for all to see
illuminating darkness
floating in the sky
moving & shifting
glistening & hiding
illuminating darkness
mother moon
shines her iridescent self
for all the world to see
illuminating darkness
children of the womb
stand in awe &
adore full mother moon
illuminating darkness
-Kayce Hughlett at Diamonds in the Sky with Lucy
*****
Someday
My Mother said it would come, Someday.
Someday I would come into womanhood,
and each month, like cycles of the moon,
blood would flow from my body,
blood that would bring pride and pain.
Oh, how I looked forward to that Day!
The old fashioned pads and belt were ready
but my Day came late, much later than most. Now
almost fifty, still bleeding with the moon,
I could have twins…Mother was a twin.
Their older sister told them about
their time, their Someday,
when rags would turn red.
I think they were afraid.
Perhaps my Mother did not know about the moon,
her waxing and waning. Though
when her time had come and gone,
she made mine ready. She was there.
Someday came and it was beautiful;
it was moon glow,
it was Holy.
-Martha
*****
Leah at This Far By Faith offers her own images of the full moon in response:
*****
Full of
Mystery and magic
Casting shadows
in the night
the full moon rises.
She calls to us
In whispers
To abandon our beds
To hear the call of
Broken darkness
Of midnight possibilities..
To know that God
Is God of the night
As well of the day!
-Sally Coleman at Eternal Echoes
*****
Moon of wonder
Moon of grace
Moon of blessing
Moon of space
How you shone
Upon that profane stall
How you bade the holy babe be still
And helped The Star illumine a path
For shepherds to come
Did you shine upon the trail
As mother and father escaped
To keep The Baby safe?
How many nights
You must have watched the young Christ child!
Did he say rhymes to you and brother stars
As children do today?
Moon of wonder
Moon of grace
Moon of blessing
Moon of space
We honor you
We thank you
-Karla Grauberger
*****
She lifts her face
through hoary frosted branches.
Silver light, picks out a thousand drifting dreams.
We sleepers, blinded
by an age of pounding, shouting light
stumble, hands outstretched, among the trunks
of elder pine and oak. Lost, we wander,
following a voice that calls our name.
Her veil parts day from night and wraps
our feverish worlds in whispered hymns
that beat within our bodies;
ebb and flow, dancing with her turning face.
And in that gentle, pulsing darkness, we need no sight.
Memory: of winters when there were no bars
upon or souls, or shackles binding us to dirt.
Waking to that gentle dark we bathe
in silver tarnished light, our skin aglow
with milky hope that whispers deep
within our hearts
the name of God.
Hands outstretched we remember,
when we called You Mother without fear,
when our bodies were your temple,
when we bore birth and death on the flood.
Now, we hear your voice again,
the voice that sang us love songs in the womb.
And we remember,
there is nothing to fear
in the silver brightness of Your sweet night.
-Tandaina at Snow On Roses
*****
there’s a certain beauty in
a full moon with unclear edges.
with mystery, it invites us
with fuzzy edges
to live more fully
our own stories
of waxing
and waning
to their shining fullness.
-Cathleen at Back Road Journey
*****
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts