Phrases of The Moon - Lunar Poems

Text copyright © 2018 by J. Patrick Lewis . Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Jori van der Linde
Edited by Kate Riggs and Amy Novesky . Designed by Rita Marshall

Published in 2018 by Creative Editions

P.O. Box 227, Mankato, MN 56002 USA . Creative Editions is an imprint of The Creative Company
www.thecreativecompany.us . All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be

reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Printed in China
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Lewis, J. Patrick, author. / Van der Linde, Jori, illustrator.
Title: Phrases of the moon: Lunar poems / by J. Patrick Lewis; illustrated by Jori van der Linde.
Summary: In this ode to the moon, poems weave together stories people have told for centuries

with impressions we all might have had about this mysterious but constant celestial orb.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017048755 / ISBN 978-1-56846-311-7

Classification: LCC PS3562.E9465 A6 2018 DDC 811/.54—dc23
First edition 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2

G
PH R ASES
OF THE
MOON:

LUNAR
POEMS

J. Patrick Lewis

illustrated by

Jori van der Linde

CREATIVE EDITIONS

CONTENTS

G

Full Moon 6
Names of the Moon: A Found Poem 8
Driving to the Moon 10
Hanging Lamp 12
A Sandcastle Is 14
Haiku 15
Incident on Beggar’s Night 16
Cow Dreams 19
The Moon Is 20
22
Weather in a Word: Still 23

Moon-agrams

CONTENTS

G

Moon Myths

Baloo: An Aboriginal Tale 25

Drummer Man: A Gouro (African) Tale 26

A Monkey Tail Tale: A Tibetan Myth 27

Why There Are Fireflies: A Japanese Myth 28

The Man in the Moon: A German Tale 30

Moon Facts 32

Full Moon

You cannot watch the sun,
It burns the eyes at noon.
But once twilight’s begun,
You turn to watch the moon.

6

Arising from her sleep.
The cloudless wonder’s there,
Too magical, too deep,
Too beautiful to bear.
The moon is too far out
To get a jeweler’s view,
But you should never doubt:
She’s looking back at you.

7

Names of the Moon:
A Found Poem

January Celtic Sioux
February Stay-home Wolves Run Together
March Ice Dark Red Calves
April Wind Sore Eye
May Growing Greening Grass
June Bright Ponies Shed Hair
July Horses Making Fat
August Claiming Ripe Wild Cherries
September Dispute Geese Shed Feathers
October Singing Scarlet Plum
November Harvest Changing Season
December Dark Falling Leaves
Cold Deer Shed Their Horns
8

Chinese English Medieval Colonial American

Holiday Wol f Winter

Budding Storm Trapper’s

Sleepy Chaste Fish

Peony Seed Planter’s

Dragon Hare Milk

Lotus Dyad Rose

Hungry Ghost Mead Summer

Harvest Corn Dog’s Day

Chrysanthemum Barley Harvest

Kindly Blood Hunter’s

White Snow Beaver

Bitter Oak Christmas 9

Driving to the Moon

If you drive to the Moon in your average car,
And you wonder how long the trip is and how far—
Here’s the answer: At seventy miles per hour
In the family sedan with its average horsepower,
No skyway patrolmen out cruising for speeders,
No reason to feed flying parking meters.
Make sure you pack plenty of outer space food,
Star-carsickness pills for the high altitude.
Now to get to the Moon on the lunar highways
Will take you . . .

134 days!

10

11

Hanging Lamp

Does she ever grow weary, incessant-
ly lighting the heavens fluorescent?

Mrs. Moon is a lamp—
She’s a heavy-watt champ—
As a full or a half or a crescent.

12

13

A Sandcastle Is

A sandcastle is the whitecap’s toy
Built by a dreamy barefoot boy
With shovel, cup and tablespoon,
Assisted by his friend, the Moon.
When waves submerge the moat around
The castle walls, silt-quilted ground
Carries away to the first sandbar
A vision so spectacular
That years from now, he will recall,
Watching a full moon cotton ball,
The day he lost his Taj Mahal.

14

Haiku

At bedtime, blue moon blues—
trucksound and trainsong
strum the wind’s guitar

15

Incident on Beggar’s Night

Griselda Goose

Wore ragged clothes,

A pointy hat,

A putty nose,

And when she found

The kitchen broom,

She sailed around

The living room.

She said, “I’m not

About to quit

Until I’ve got

The hang of it!”

At first she kept

Her eyes shut tight

Until she swept

Into the night . . .

Into the night’s

October chill,

Past city lights,

Goose rising still.

Softly she bumped

Against a cloud!

She cackled, thumped

It, cried out loud:

“Oh, look at what

A world I see.

I think I’ve got

The hang of me!”

Griselda steered

Up, up and soon,

She disappeared

Behind the moon.

17

18

Cow Dreams

Cows that stand in farmers’ fields

Promise tons of sunny yields.

Cows that belly down in shade

Bring spring showers, I’m afraid.

Cows that give the Moon a moo

Wait for starlight, then give two.

Cows that fall asleep and dream

Dream the Moon is pouring cream.

19

The Moon Is

Man or woman,
Rabbit or cat,
Depending on what
You’re gazing at.

Misshapen in full
Or parenthesis,
So often mistakenly
Taken for Swiss

Cheese. Dusty trustee
Of famous footprints
Of twelve astronauts who
Have landed there since.

Eternal museum
Where folklore abides,
Sojourner of heavens,
Re-turner of tides.

The luminous news
(Farmer’s Almanac),
A cool monthly cruise
Round the zodiac.

20

21

Weather in a Word: Still

There is no weather Breathless days
On the Moon— Of blistering heat,
No wind or sound, Blanketed nights
No snow or rain. Of bitter cold
Inside is out Leave the silence
If you are peeking Undisturbed
Through a lunar And the climate
Windowpane. Uncontrolled.

22

Moon-agrams

Moon’s light Night looms
Lunar eclipse Peculiar lens
Astronaut Santa tour NASA tutor
Moon’s gravity A moving story
Sea of Tranquility Afar, it’s only quiet
Over the rainbow Borrow it, heaven

23

24

MOON MYTHS

Baloo:
An Aboriginal Tale

In the Dreamtime long ago,
Moon Baloo dropped down to two
Maidens, who asked him to row

Them in their little canoe.

But the boat began to tip!
He fell in up to his waist,

Ending their companionship.
Moon Baloo felt so disgraced.

So tonight, if he forgets

His embarrassment, he’ll smile.

But, remembering, he frets,

Then he shrinks away awhile.



25

Drummer Man:
A Gouro (African) Tale

When people hunt, they hunt hope.
When they eat, they eat happiness.
When they talk, they talk story.
When they shout, they shout praise.
When they sleep, ancestors paint them
the color of peace.
When they wake, they wake to drums,

brushing the hushed village at dawn.
It’s the Drummer Man in the Moon,

sugaring the sky.
When people die, they die to live

in the Moon with the Drummer Man,
his drumsticks rap-tapping forever.

26

A Monkey Tail Tale:
A Tibetan Myth

“Hoo-hoo-hoo,” Monkey Boss said.
“Moon’s in the well. Look at her head.
Pale reflection. Might be dead!”
Bunch of monkeys sitting in a tree.
Monkey Boss ordered, “Follow me.
Let’s make a tail ladder, one, two, three.”
Here’s the part I hate to tell:
Monkeys leaned too far—and fell!
Moon flew off. Now who’s in the well?
Monkeys ought to know this rule
Monkeys never learn in school:
Foolishness follows the fool.


27

Why There Are Fireflies:
A Japanese Myth

Once, near Mount Fujiyama, a couple, older
than a bonsai, wished in vain for a child. One
night the wife slipped out of the house and
prayed to the Moon that sat on the snow-
capped mountains. So it was that a Moon-
child landed on a bamboo stalk, and grew into
a beautiful Princess. She promised her Moon
mother that she would return in 20 years.
But 20 years flew by like hoptoads. The cou-
ple and the Emperor’s son, who had asked her
to marry him, were overcome with sadness.
The Lady in the Moon spun out a silk beam
and the Moonchild Princess wafted up. But
on the way she wept silver tears—the summer
evening’s fireflies—for those she’d left behind.
She is still searching all over the Earth, just like
fireflies, for the great love she found there.

28



The Man in the Moon:
A German Tale

Ages ago in a twilight wood,
One Sunday like another,
A man chopped kindling best he could,
Taught, brother unto brother.

A gentleman in church-bone clothes,
Passing him by the river,
Said, “Work today, you thumb your nose!
Go, rest, and pay the Giver.”

“Sunday on earth, Monday in heaven
Is all the same to me!”

30

Said Woodchop man. “A week turns seven
Dark days as I can see.”

“Then heave your bundle up,” said he,
“If Sunday means you ill,
And spend moonday eternity
In the house above the hill.”

Now he, to pacify the Maker,
Stands with branches hewn,
As warning to the Sabbath-breaker—
The Woodsman in the moon.

31

MOON FACTS

G

Moon’s age: 4.5 billion years
Moon’s orbit around Earth: 27.322 days
Average orbital speed: 2 ,300 miles (3,702 km) per hour
Average distance from Earth: 238,857 miles (384,403 km)

Colors: silver, red, orange, brown, blue
Mass: slightly less than 1/80 of Earth’s
Surface area: less than 1/13 of Earth’s

Gravity: 1/6 that of Earth’s
First two people on the moon: Neil Armstrong

and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin ( July 20, 1969 )
Last people to land on the moon:

Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt
( December 1 1, 1972)

Moon’s biggest impact crater: South Pole–Aitken basin, at about
1,600 miles ( 2,575 km) in diameter

Temperature range: -244 °F (-153 °C) to 273 °F ( 134 °C)
Earthshine: when the moon is new, sunlight reflects
from Earth to the moon and illuminates the disc

Solar eclipse: when the moon passes between Earth and the sun
Lunar eclipse: when Earth passes between the moon and the sun

Blue moon: the second full moon in a calendar month
or the third of four full moons in a season