FORTY-TWO BLUE MOONS
This morning the air brings the rustle of rain soon and the vague scent of vanilla biscuits.
Alt text says this week’s photo is a person holding a book in front of a bookshelf. Indeed it is, and that person is me and the book that I have temporarily removed from its space on the shelf in Waterstones is Welcome to the Museum of a Life published by Black Eyes Publishing UK. And the fact it is written by me, and it is there makes my heart dance a little happy dance.
In my ponderings this week I thought about blue moons, and I found out that maybe the blue moon at the end of May meant there have been forty-two blue moons since I was born. And whether there have or there haven’t this ‘fact’ along with the realisation that I hadn’t got a blue moon poem in amongst my moon poems inspired me to get writing. I donned my ‘Poetry in Business’ t-shirt and started to draft. I rather like the poem that formed in this moment of creativity at my new writing desk and so I will share it here for you my reader/listener...
BLUE MOON
The second full moon in a calendar month
and I want to write you a poem.
I want to tell you this will be the 42nd
blue moon since I was born.
But I am not entirely certain
the number is correct.
And even if it is, I know
just one blue moon in the future
will change everything.
Instead let’s walk together
when it rises.
Let’s linger under the light of it
marvel in the fleeting moments
that can be counted on.
I have spent a lot of time this week thinking about the helpfulness of staying in the moment. My brother was always wise in telling me not to worry about things that haven’t happened yet, and I always aim to carry this snippet of wisdom with me. It is one of those pieces of advice that is quite handy to tune into when things get busy or overwhelming, and elements of this past week have indeed felt rather full.
It has also been one of those weeks where my energy has often appeared at different times of day. This has meant for example that I have seized the moment to wash my windows at half past nine at night even though regular readers of this blog will know that I am a big fan of getting out of bed and completing the task while still pyjamaed and then enjoying a satisfied ‘job completed, time to get clean’ shower! I guess as my nan used to say: “A change is as good as a rest”.
During a bit of down time, Kath and I went to visit an excellent exhibition at Chester Cathedral called Threads Through the Bible. It was wonderful to see each of the panels displayed there and to just lose myself to the beauty of another person’s work. Afterwards, since we were right there in Chester, I thought I would pop into Waterstones to see if they had stocked my book because it had been a few weeks since I went in to ask if this was a possibility. I was delighted to see it on the shelf and a little disappointed that I hadn’t had the foresight to wear my Poetry In Business t-shirt there for my photo. After all, being a founding member of the group is spurring me on and is nicely mixed in with my promise to myself to be 10% braver. It still makes me chuckle that when I was asked in a podcast interview recently, “Where can people find your books?” I also heard my own echoing question of, “Where can’t people find your books?” and the answer to my question was “Waterstones in Chester” and I recognised this would have been a much better answer to the first question! So, there’s that one rectified for now and I hope whoever buys this copy of my book thoroughly enjoys exploring the poems.
If you like poetry and you haven’t yet been to one of Louise Longson’s Last Saturday events I can highly recommend them. I was a reader there this week and was delighted to be asked to take part. It is one of those events that I love whether I am reading or listening, it is a perfectly timed event at just over an hour long on the last Saturday of each month and it always brings together a good selection of readers. Each of the evenings is themed and this time we were celebrating National Creativity Day. It feels like a treat and a challenge all at once to select poems for a theme and this is the kind of thing that I love to do. Here’s Rapunzel which I shared at the event on Saturday:
RAPUNZEL
Rapunzel: A Fairy tale first published 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in Germany
rapunzel: lambs lettuce (Campanula rapunculus)
Only ever iceberg now
and always from the fridge
I peel away the outer leaves;
two, three,
sometimes four have to go
before it is pale enough for my taste.
Then, eight wedges
crisply cut
are my bland supper.
Frigid, he says.
He does not know what it does to me
that you are not here to take the milk.
Salty tears trickle down my neck
souring the moisture
that leaks from my breasts
each time I shift in the chair.
I knitted you a purple blanket,
grew it each evening after dinner
twelve weeks of moss stitch
to wrap my precious baby.
I never got to see you in it.
He took you on the darkest night.
I hope he wrapped you well
kissed you
before he handed you over.
He should have gathered us both up, you and I,
run us far away
he should have built us a castle
of thickest stone,
moated us in.
I listen for you crying in the night,
think I hear you
as the clock strikes the even hours.
When at last I sleep, I see you.
There’s the most magnificent tower
standing against the clearest blue sky.
The grey bricks are your dress
sea glass glints and winks,
embedded in a mortar Empire line;
says you’re beautiful now.
And there’s your face at the highest window
smiling before your mouth opens.
I think you are going to call me mother
instead you sing
sending notes travelling
like unencumbered birds soaring.
I listen for you crying in the night,
think I hear you
but I don’t
because I swapped you for lettuce.
And he let me.
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