Greetings, Poetry Lovers!
Back from our "hurrication" and all is well at our humble abode; Beaufort was very fortunate for the most part. Thanks for the kind wishes last week!
If you're still keeping a weather eye out, you might know that this is Friday the 13th - AND, a full moon! The next time those two tingly occurances will coincide will be August 13, 2049. (Quick, do the math - how old will you be?!)
This is a Harvest Moon, because it occurs closest to the Autumnal equinox. It's not feeling much like fall in many places, including here, at the moment.... but I've seen a wee leaf drift here or there. And I got a good look at the almost-full moon as I came out of my studio last night; its face was so very clear!
I have a thing for the number 13, having researched it for a former poetry project that may or may not ever come to harvest. It's a number that's a bit bewitching of course, as is the moon.... All that feminine energy, 13 lunar months in a year, and such.
In Act V of Shakespeare's The Tempest, we read of Caliban:
His mother was a witch, and one so strong/That could control the moon.
For more playful enjoyment of today's "lunacy," here is a poem by Robert Louis Stephenson (1850-1894)...
The Moon
The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;
She shines on thieves on the garden wall,
On streets and fields and harbour quays,
And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.
The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,
The howling dog by the door of the house,
The bat that lies in bed at noon,
All love to be out by the light of the moon.
But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.
That first line, and several others, make my swooooon! I'm sure we could come up with a clever "moon/swoon" line. In fact, just one more line and we'd have a 13-line poem.
This time of year in my artsyletters studio, things begin to get a little dark.... I'm beginning to add to my "haunted jewelry" section, and some darkly delicious elements are creeping into other items. For instance, how could I resist the little black cat charm in the bookmark above, in vintage picasso/jet Czech glass? And how could I resist dangling a vintage pewter articulated fish skeleton beneath it?
Fall brings out the mischief in me. Lots more studio mischief to come. (I have some more black and orange earrings, for instance, made with snips from a magazine cover from the 1860s - when Robert Louis Stephenson was still a teenager!) I'm also still playing with skeleton images under glass cabs, from a French encyclopedia page from the 1920s. I can't help myself. I've got some Nevermore/Raven earrings, too, which I try to keep stocked at the amazing bookstore around the corner from my shop, Nevermore Books. (If you need to indulge your dark-side aesthetic sensibilities to help you embrace the impending season, click over to their home page and enjoy the ambiance.)
Here's to the Friday the 13th Full Moon - may you dance, howl, bay, prance, and most of all, compose poetry bathed in its lovely, spooky light! And here's to Laura Purdie Salas, celebrating aNOTHER wonderful new picture book and hosting us all for Poetry Friday at Writing the World for Kids. (She's got a give-away, too!)
