Saturday, December 22, 2018

Moonstruck

Hello Toads!  Tonight have a full cold moon, the Geminids meteor shower, and the winter solstice.  The trifecta of celestial events!  Personally I love all of these winter nocturnal events.  I especilally love the full moon.  The Native Americans have names for all the full moons in the year to mark the passing of time.  The full moon was a time for night hunting, for sitting by the fire and telling stories, for secret ceremonies of the men and women.  The moon in December is known by these various names by the various People. For example this illustration gives the full moons for North Eastern tribes taken from the Farmer's Almanac:


Other tribes of course have different names for the moons.  You can go to this website and choose a moon name of your choice for December:
https://www.wwu.edu/skywise/indianmoons.html

I would like you to write in any form except prose (unless you do a haibun) a poem about the full moon.  Choose one of the names and write about it - if you use the Native American name put that name in your poem and/or title.  I would also like you to make this a spare poem - less than 100 words.  Please, no more than 100 words.

This is an example I recently wrote and posted on the Wolf Moon.  It is 50 words.

Wolf Moon
the wolf moon begins to rise
shattered into pieces
by black branches
like a sky mounted mirror.
branches begin to whisper
tossed by high flying breezes
sounding like windchimes made from seashells,
small animal bones, broken glass –
The wolf moon crouches in the sky
sniffing the smell of the wind.

So get out there. Howl at the moon, take a walk by moonlight, or do as I do sometimes on sparsely populated country roads and take a drive with your headlights off.  Write a poem about the full moon.  And visit and read the other poets too.  Learn about the different full moons.  Celebrate the winter solstice.  And above all - write!!! 


full wolf moon 2017





12 comments:

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Really loved this prompt, Toni!💞 I chose to write on the "full strawberry moon," and managed to keep it under 100 words. Hope you like it 😊 Happy Weekend, everyone!☕

tonispencer said...

Hi Toads. I have a busy day but will be back later to read and comment. You all have a great time writing to the prompt!

tonispencer said...

Sanaa: I am sure I will enjoy your poem!

Fireblossom said...

I am ready for this lunacy.

brudberg said...

I want to be there in the moonlight, but I've got a cold and it's cloudy outside... I have to imagine.

Fireblossom said...

When I was about 20, the chain restaurant I worked at was robbed one night after close. I was on days and wasn't there, but the night manager and two employees were locked in the walk-in cooler all night until the morning shift found them. I have written about what it might have been like to be injured, confused and cold in that cooler. It had a light in the middle of the ceiling--a full cold moon, if you will.

klahanie said...

I do like your Wolf Moon poetry
The words doth flow so easily
I howl at the moon
With an eerie tune
My inner spirit of klahanie
Embraces that orb above the sea.

Gary.

tonispencer said...

Bjorn: I know you have seen enough full moons to know without imagining too hard! I live for the full moons especially with a meteor shower during the winter solstice.

tonispencer said...

Fireblossom: I was locked in a cooler as well. I love he thought of the light in the cooler being the full cold moon! so original.

Kim M. Russell said...

Good morning Toni and the Toad chorus - a lovely prompt. I'm just about to read and comment.
I'm sorry my poem is a bit late. I tried to get some photographs of last night's moon through the branches in our garden but they didn't come out as expected, so I had to search for an alternative image.
Enjoy the moon, everyone, and have a relaxing, merry Christmas!

colleen said...

For more than two decades my friend and I put a monthly homespun community newsletter together, naming the moon every month. A few of the name we came up with were Lo-Sun-Moon, Milky Way Moon, Daddy- Oh Moon, Moon of Plenty, Mermoon, Up and Coming Moon, and Big Grassy Moon, and this one, named after the start of the War in Iraq, “Year of Compassion Moon of Dissent.” There was also Looney Tunes Moon.

Susie Clevenger said...

What a beautiful moon poem. I too wrote from the wolf moon. I am presently in a journey through my darkness and finding there is much to learn and see there.