At five o’clock, the moon’s face
Peered into my window,
Suspended in the space
Between the branches of the willow,
Pregnant with poetry.
At six, I blindly tip-toed down the shadow
Of the stairs, carefully
Cradling my lunar embryo,
Crooning a lullaby, a celestial tune
To soothe the baby moon.
At dawn, the poem was born.
As the sun tinged the sky
And Phoebe was fading,
I fostered the child
and presented it to the day –
With my eyes wide open.
Kim M. Russell, 2017
Image found on Pinterest
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Inside the Ink (Poetry and Flash Fiction with Magaly)
Magaly tells us that she has just reread The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan and that this tanka anthology, and its history, gripped her. She says ‘the poetry is suggestive, playful, sad, loving, happy… just like life—my reading journal is bursting with quotes.’
This week, she has invited us to take a quote from the last book we read, and turn it into a new three-stanza poem or a very short story (of 313 words or fewer). Dance with the quote, laugh with it… cry with it—make us feel what the words made us feel – and share the book quote and title.
I recently finished reading Electric Shadow, a collection of poems by Heidi Williamson, an inspirational poet I met and worked with at a creative writing workshop in Norwich. I have been dipping into this book since I got it and know I will return to it again. My quote is from ‘Aurora’, the last poem in the book:
‘While every poem ever written
About the moon rises before me,
I wait here, in the dark,
With my eyes wide open.’
writing in north norfolk 
I love how you see the poem as being born from what you see… the whole process sounds like a labor of love. Maybe just watching is what makes the difference.
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🙂
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That’s how we see in the dark: with lunar eyes and a poem’s sigh. Lovely.
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Thank you, Brendan.
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Loving the journey of idea to poem. Simply and beautifully captured here. The ground can become tortuous sometimes but when and however we get there the birth is the thing!
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Thank you for your kind comments!
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For me to write a poem, I need a good opening line – without it I am stumped. Your opening lines here are so good, I am envious. There is a process to creating poetry, so much like trying to capture the moonlight.
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Thank you, Kerry, for such an anazing compliment.
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This is so beautiful and perfectly crafted. I wish that I had written this.
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Thank you so much, Mama Zen!
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Damn, girl. This is tight!
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Thank you, Iris!
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There are so many things I love about this poem: the way you took your chosen quote, split it open, and filled it with the light and dark of your Muse. “Cradling my lunar embryo” is my favorite line. I appreciate the hope it speaks of, the promise…
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Thank you, Magaly. There are times when I feel full of lunar embryos waiting to be born but some are lost when I’m not in a position to scribble them down. Last week I felt completely barren with grief. I really appreciate sharing my scribbling with you all and the comments are so encouraging.
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I love “Crooning a…celestial tune to soothe the baby moon.” Lovely.
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This is such a charming description of the creative writing process! I’m in love with the sweet whimsy of the words.
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I’m so pleased you like it, Rommy. Thank you. 😊
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Thank you, Rommy!
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the imagery, wow. Just wow. It was like watching a metaphor in action, alive.
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Thank you, Amy Jo, I am delighted you like it!
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Wow, what a cool picture you found for what you were doing. I enjoyed the whole poem, but I really loved the last line.
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Thank you for reading and commenting, Theresa!
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I am in love with this beautiful poem!
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Thank you so much, Rosemary!
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Another Stupendous verse. 🌹🌹🌹
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Thanks Dorna!
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Oh I love this❤️ especially the lines; “At dawn, the poem was born. As the sun tinged the sky” Beautifully executed.
PS: Would you believe that whenever I write, the closing or opening lines come to me first.. and then I sit down to expand them into a poem! 🙂
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Thank you, Sanaa! With this one it was the last line 😁
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❤️
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