PISCES NEW MOON GUEST CONTRIBUTOR : HENRY NORMAL
SAT 13 MAR 10:21 - Mooning Monthly salutes writers and readers alike....
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Welcome to the third edition of MOON LIT, a platform for new literature with a lunar theme, this month featuring the poetry of Bafta award wining film and TV writer/producer, Henry Normal. He's the latest of 13 notable writers invited to contribute their poetry for exclusive publication at each of this year's 13 new moons....and I am extremely grateful for his involvement.
As the first signs of spring emerge in welcome splashes of daffodil and crocus splendor along Northern European hedgerows and verges, thoughts might turn optimistically to the warmer seasons to come. The Spring Equinox approaches. It's an annual marker of planetary balance when day and night temporarily equate before the Northern Hemisphere continues it's inexorable, fertile climb towards the light of high summer and Southerners begin preparations for the regenerative descent into winter darkness.
Wherever we find ourselves on this beautiful, extraordinary little planet, the quiet gravitational draw of her accompanying new moon lies in its monthly nourishment of our hopes and aspirations. From its silken shadows, weight of purpose germinates and grows towards full and bounteous fruition. Seeds will swell and shoot but always prosper best in well prepared soil.
Millennia of astrological observation suggests time spent in contemplation at new moon is time well spent. Consciously refining personal intention under a new moon is said to harness the heightened, nurturing lunar tides towards positive outcomes aligned with the natural world. The process could be interpreted as a form of integrated, intelligent engagement with evolution, the magnificent unified field to which we all belong.
The written word is a vital and direct example of engagement in the process of human and planetary development. MOON LIT salutes the writers generous enough to cultivate and offer creative seed stock for others to plant and tend. Moreover, we salute the rich imagination of readers without whom valuable ideas would lie fallow or decay. We salute readers who find time in busy lives to sit in silence, to engage thoughtfully with allegory and metaphor in defining their own reality. The word, in its transition from internal resonance to utterance as sound, is at the heart of all creation.
May this weekend's springtime Pisces New Moon be the fertile earth in which all your dreams blossom and bear fruit for the benefit of All.
As previously intimated, I am particularly delighted that this month's contributor to MOON LIT is Henry Normal, writer, poet and TV and Film producer; founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Literature festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival. In June 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to Television. Since retiring from TV in April 2016 he has written and performed 7 x BBC Radio 4 shows, released 8 poetry collections and has had a beer and a bus named after him in his home town of Nottingham! He offers us a selection of graceful verse that delicately map the path between new and full moons. Personal yet generic, these poems speak to the commonality of relationships with our often ignored lifetime celestial companion and each other. They chart the detours of our self-important pettiness through the timeless annals of the heavens, reconnecting us with our inherent childish playfulness and earthly innocence. Ultimately, we are lifted.
THE MOON IS LEAVING SLOWLY Every single star in the totality pulls on my blood each individual atom attracts I am drifting at the rate fingernails grow If only you could wrap your arms around me Between neap and spring tides as planets align and the Earth slows centrifugal force increasing I am lifted
THE MOON IN THE MORNING SKY
Like a dinner guest still there at breakfast Its appearance is the same only the context has changed easily mistaken for a small cloud but for the expanse of clear blue Reflected light marks half its full shape To complete the picture requires imagination or a memory of what was once revealed or at least basic understanding of geometry and cosmology It sits in the west in no hurry to slip away I am the only living thing in my garden not facing the sun The blanket of green surrounding me varies in detail at closer inspection Deep reds and burnt orange fight for attention Tiny blue-purple buds emerge as though a little shy Olive green is easily distinguished Bushes and shrubs soon stand out like when concentrating on the hard bits of a jigsaw puzzle Each leaf is a child's drawing Shapes and sizes now too obvious to have been missed Small birds insist it's morning A digital alarm that won't be muted The wind strokes my hair The moon has definitely moved in relation to the yardstick of the tall cactus Now lower in the sky it nears the tops of the terracotta roofs It seems only by looking away distracted for a moment can I perceive movement I feel a warmth at the back of my neck as I watch the slowest of goodbyes
THE MOON DECLARES NOT ITS AGE BUT ITS BEAUTY Though bureaucrats schedule scorn within their petty margins and though tomorrow seems as distant as the furthest of God's silhouettes giddy to the moment shared Time is a child running rings in a garden and the Moon declares not its age but its beauty
ONE HALF OF THE MOON IN THE LATE AFTERNOON
Hanging foolishly in the east this pale imitation is universally ignored by holiday makers busy making holidays orientated as usual to the summer sun A smudge of white like a semicircular cloud has nowhere to hide in the perfect blue A buoy in a sea with no boats it is without purpose other than for poets and other lost souls
THREE LIES AND ONE TRUTH ABOUT THE MOON
1. The moon only exists at night, and occasionally during the day, in summer
2. No-one has ever landed on the moon, and the Russian President knows this but promised his mum he wouldn't say anything
3. The moon is a hollow spaceship inhabited by nazi rabbits that turn men into werewolves
4. If my heart was as big as the moon I couldn't love you more
Henry Normal
www.henrynormal.com
Once again we open the doors of our very own art gallery MOON LIT DISPLAY, exhibiting drawings, paintings, prints and sculpture by artists with a lunar bent. Each month, alongside our literary guests, a visual artist will be invited to share their most recent creative output, ensuring our exhibits are both cutting edge and oh so contemporary.
Under this Pisces New Moon we welcome artist and Mooner-in-Chief Mark Weighton. Mark lives and works in his home town of Godalming, Surrey. He created and writes the moon blog Mooning Monthly and is a founder member of ArtClub™ and LAMMAS, two international artist collectives that aspire to inspire positive change in the world through their creative activities. He also does some teaching when he has time. For over thirty years he has been creating artworks that explore a vision of the interconnected nature of existence. He has exhibited his work internationally and features in many private and public collections across Europe and the Americas. More work can be viewed on his website: www.markweighton.com
TEMPLE AT DELPHI
ink, acrylic, newspaper on cardboard box
73 x 51cm
2020
BEACHY HEAD MOONSET
acrylic on canvas
41 x 31 cm
2021
JJust so you know, MOON LIT seeks to present literature and artwork that celebrates and reveres, marvels, champions and cherishes, whilst never shirking the necessary excavation of life's shadows in search of the priceless shining diamonds within. Each edition is a poetic invitation to contemplate our reading of, and reaction to, circumstance, that we may more consciously direct our thoughts, words and actions toward positive benefit for All.
Throughout 2021 MOON LIT will offer a monthly meditative pause under the poetic guidance of our distinguished literary guests. It is hoped readers will find time in hectic schedules to unhurriedly savour their literary craft; to read and reread these new perspectives on the miraculous, beguiling life experience to which we all belong.
MOON LIT publishes at new moon alongside its full moon sister publication MOONING MONTHLY that offers loosely astrological lunar forecasts for the coming month. (Mooning Monthly 114 still available here) Subscribe for free at your leisure to ensure both emails hit your inbox when it matters.
And of course, do please share MOON LIT with friends and family of similar lunar sensitivities, in the hope that this illuminating endeavour brightens our currently challenging, darkened times with the light of beauty and Love.
With love 'til next time
Mark
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