Welcome to Spiritual Journey (first) Thursday, February edition. Today we’re moodling on the moon.
To tell you the truth, I don’t have much of a relationship with the moon. It’s beautiful, for sure. I do love to see it bulge orange and bountiful over the horizon on a clear evening. I associate moonrises with autumn on the prairie, the thrum of combines and trucks in the background, my dad and uncle taking advantage of every bit of light to gather in the harvest of wheat and oats. But most of the time I feel sorry for the moon staring distant, cold, and lone into the night.
Of course the moon’s prominence, cool beauty, and mystery are impossible to miss. One of my favourite childhood poems was about the moon. You probably know it:
“Slowly silently now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way and that she peers and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;”
Read the rest of “Silver” by Walter de la Mare HERE.
It’s not surprising that the moon has been a worship object in many religions (and probably still is). Its waxing, waning, and connection to tides and seasons surely invest it with mysterious power that is only reinforced by the occasional eclipse. I love the poem “Lunar Eclipse (June 1928)” by D. S. Martin (a poem from his chapbook So the Moon Would Not Be Swallowed—a collection of poems inspired by correspondence from his grandparents who were missionaries in China). In it, he describes the reaction of the Chinese people to the lunar eclipse in June of 1928:
LUNAR ECLIPSE (JUNE 1928)
Yencheng, Honan, ChinaOn Sunday
evening as darkness crept in
the people rushed out
with gongs
& pots & anything to make noise to scare
the heavenly dog
that slowly
very
slowly
ever so slowly
had
placed its jaws about the moon
Read the rest of D.S. Martin’s poem HERE…
My attitude toward the moon has been influenced by my Christian faith and the Bible, which depicts it as one of God’s creations. I love how Genesis describes its beginnings:
“Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night” – Genesis 1:16 (emphasis added).
My poem today was inspired by Psalm 19 (where the moon isn’t mentioned specifically, but we know it is a part of the created heavens).
“The heavens declare the glory of God
And the firmament shows His handiwork.” – Psalm 19:1
Glory Tour
“God’s glory is on tour in the skies …
unspoken truth is spoken everywhere” – Psalm 19:1,4 The Message
The stars are reciting
galaxies rhyming
the language of eons
in speed-of-light timing.
The Sun’s dialect
of dangerous rays
is inflected with angles
defining our days.
The Moon serenades
tide, lover and season
chanting its charms
with quarterly reason.
The Heavens are dancing
Truth, Beauty and Wisdom.
The tickets are free,
Earth attendees are welcome!
© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All Rights Reserved)
(Glory Tour was first published on Laurel Archer’s 2017 Advent blog.)
Be sure to visit our Spiritual Journey First Thursday hostess, Donna at Mainely Write for links to more moon meditations.
Violet Nesdoly 
The tickets are free! Yes! And you know, Violet, you had me at “moodling.” 🙂 What a great word! Your comment about feeling sorry for the moon reminds me of a scene in a movie (don’t remember which one) where a young couple is watching an old couple in a diner, bemoaning the fact that the old couple eat together silently… don’t they have anything to say to one another? We don’t want to end up like THAT… and then they re-look, and maybe it’s something to strive for, the comfortable peace between two people that can only be experienced after years and years of love and togetherness…. it’s all in the way you look at it! Thank you for sharing today. xo
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Thanks, Irene! I love your story of the old vs. young couple. True words about “It’s all in the way you look at it.” I hope the moon doesn’t hold it against me that I’m not in love with it… we are old friends but not kindred spirits.
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“To tell you the truth, I don’t have much of a relationship with the moon.” You seem to have more than you realized! Such a rich post. I love all those same Bible references, too. And your poem is beautiful. “with quarterly reason”…love that!
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Thank you, Donna, and for dreaming up this interesting subject for a spiritual journey Thursday!
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Hi Violet, I did not know Walter de la Mare’s fine poem & enjoyed following the link.
Plus I love reading his made up a word (SHOON), as I do yours! (MOODLING)
[spell-masher has 2x switched them to shoot & molding. so that explains my shouting – sorry!)
I love your “Glory Tour,” sharing attention with heavenly stars & sun, too.
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Thanks, Jan! I think our spellcheck apps need to go to poetry school, or at least be a little more tolerant of archaic and inventive words.
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Violet, I love this line from Scripture, “And the firmament shows His handiwork.” Handiwork indeed. It is as if each piece of nature was brush stroked to capture the essence of life. I am swept away with your Glory Tour. Sign me up for “The tickets are free” and you said, “Earth attendees are welcome!”
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Thanks, Carol! What a wonderful way to put it: “brush stroked to capture the essence of life.”
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Your galaxies rhyming is a delight to recite!
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Thank you, Margaret!
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Violet your post are always a delight to read… and they make me want to write a little more poetic … but not enough to do it… hahaha.. I’ll just read yours
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Thanks for this lovely collection of moon inspired poems Violet! I liked the tongue-in-cheek approach in D. S. Martins poem. I’d love to have some extra “truth” sent down from your poem, there seems to be a shortage of it today.
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Oh, thanks, Michelle! As for the moon and truth, it’s seen too much to play around with falsehood.
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