13 Ways of Looking at the Moon

This poem, inspired by Wallace Stevens' "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" traces 12 moon months according to the names given by the English and/or Native Americans.

13 Ways of Looking at the Moon

1. Old Moon
Year’s born in ancient cold,
a frozen snowball of a moon,
silent and seamless,
hurls towards spring.

2. Wolf Moon
Whatever hasn’t been consumed,
lies under gaze of both wolf
and moon. A waiting game,
hide and seek between barren trees.

3. Lenten Moon
How can we give up
what was taken away months ago?
Trees surrender sap, ground opens its crusty heart
to both sun and moon. We follow.

4. Egg Moon
The oval and sphere compare arcs.
Which is more perfect?
Yet it’s now April,
more beautiful and pink than both.

5. Milk Moon
Light’s liquid
feeds us by day,
liquid light feeds
dreams by night.

6. Flower Moon
Blossoms twist into strawberries,
buds into roses,
the gibbous moon unwinds,
full as summer.

7. Hay Moon
You can hear everything grow.
Tracking height and breadth
between crescents, quarters,
crops wax as moon wanes.

8. Grain Moon
The moon, a big grinding stone
covered in flour.
Cakes and loaves
celebrate in circumference.

9. Fruit Moon
Plums fall like shooting stars,
moon hovers where no hand can pluck it,
but fills the basket of our hands
with its white meloness.

10. Harvest Moon
Hours by the bushel full
are filled by picking,
nights find us still in the field,
and so does the moon.

11. Hunter’s Moon
Moose and mushroom magnify
under its light,
we can see our breath,
foresee a feast.

12. Frost Moon
The moon has shaved
for the holidays,
and sheds it stubble
as if earth were its sink.

Days of Christmas
These 12 most holy days
once a pagan bundle of solar leftovers,
pastiche darkness, phases, eclipses, tides,
falling to rest, awakening.

~ Cynthia Gallaher

◦

13 Ways of Looking at the Moon