Blaming the Moon

M is for Moon

I have my doubts about the Moon.
The tides, they rise and fall.
Lovers gaze upon its face.
I wonder. Is that all?

Do nutty people know the Moon,
Go deeper when they see?
Am I the loony one who won’t
Let moonlight brighten me?

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar. The topic will trimeter and I am hosting. In the above poem I use trimeter, a line containing three feet, in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth lines.  The challenge is to write a poem with at least some lines written in trimeter.  The pub will open at 3 PM EST.
Linked also to Jilly’s 28 Days of Unreason Day 14 with a Harrison quote about blaming the Moon.
Photo:  “M is for Moon” by the author.  Perhaps I should clean the keyboard.

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

73 thoughts on “Blaming the Moon”

  6. Lunatics all, we gaze at the moon, seeing cheese, faces, & UFO bases, and one tiny American flag. I have not tried this before, or don’t remember it–==but it is an interesting challenge.

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    1. I could read your poem with three accented syllables per line. I’m glad this was a new challenge. The Moon holds all kinds of dreams for us, waiting till we need them. Thanks, Glenn!

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    1. Thank you, Lynn! I liked that word “loony” as well. I think because I had Moon on my mind it just popped into place. I was trying to write something related to Harrison’s quote about blaming the Moon.

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  8. A poem for lovers and lunatics – I like the fact your prompts bring us back to meter – not easy to make it sound non-predictable. Might try though!

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    1. I like to make poems sound nice just in case they don’t make sense to the reader. What we currently think is insane may be a misunderstanding on our part of a deeper insight. Thank you, Victoria!

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  11. Ah, Frank, moonlight always brightens you! Somehow this challenge totally confounded me. I’m afraid I left you a sassy little poem, however. Mea culpa!

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    1. I liked your poem. You did it very well. You’re right about moonlight. It always brightens us. We just may not be aware we are being enlightened as well. Thanks, Beverly!

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      1. I found that particular internal rhyme tremendously brainy. The missing syllable was not at all accidental, as one whole foot could be attributed to the stressed “gaze” in order to revert from the trochaic variation of “lover” back to the iambic flow, pivoting craftily over that internal rhyme. That, I think, is some serious prosodic wisdom. Marvellous.

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        1. The missing first syllable was deliberate, as you mention, to soften the iambic repetition and make the sentence more natural sounding. The original line was “Lovers look upon its face” which didn’t sound interesting to me nor did it have two similar sounding words in the line that I was aiming for. I am glad you liked it, Colin!

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  13. ArTeYes
    ReaSoNeYes
    BillNye
    Moon
    Pies Country
    Roads MoonLiGht
    Kiss BRinGinG Back
    A Memory of ‘Moonlight
    Feels Right’ and that
    Sweet Southern
    Baptist
    Girl
    in the
    back seat slapping
    my hand away when i just
    touched her leg in friendship..
    yes.. she sitting next to my Sister
    With My Mother Driving the Car
    i’m not sure if it was the Song as
    Moon AlwAys BRinG Back tHat MaGiC SonG..
    So glad i lived
    in an era
    at that
    age
    so naive
    and innocent
    away from knowing now..
    why it was.. she slapped my hand…

    Ah..all Days
    When A Dance and SonG
    oF Moonlight FeeLs Right..:)

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    1. I don’t know why she slapped your hand. Perhaps she didn’t want your sister or mother to see. But who knows. The Moon does strange things and as Harrison suggested: blame the Moon, not me. Thanks, Fred!

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  14. An essential question at the end of it, Frank. Not the cleaning of the keyboard, but the one about the moon and your resistance to it. My advice, spend an evening on YouTube listening to as many songs with Moon in the title as you can find.

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    1. The first picture I took of the keyboard it was so dirty I had to blow off the dust and try again. Then I took this photo. It still wasn’t clean. I think the Moon might actually affect us in ways we are unaware at the moment because we haven’t thought of measuring those aspects. The magnetosphere (which does not extend out to the moon) affects us, perhaps keeps us sane–or at least we resonate with it. Maybe the Moon also affects us and there is something to the loony description. Thanks, Charley! I think I’ll listen to Moon River.

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    1. It was worse before I cleaned it. I am glad you liked the poem. I wish I could make sense out of how the Moon affects us, and perhaps is to blame as Harrison says. In general, I think we’re to blame when it matters. It reminds me of that Margaritaville song by Jimmy Buffett. Each stanza gets closer to finding who really is to blame for why he’s where he is. Thanks, Jilly!

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      1. …and I always thought Buffet was just there for the shrimp and booze! Haha! Some nights I go outside and wave at the moon like an old friend. It does strange things to us, indeed.

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  16. Pingback: What Visits In The Night? – DoodleScribbles

  17. A lovely rhythm, Frank. I’m a moon lover (I hope you don’t mind), but I echo your line: I also wonder I wonder. Is that all?

    …there’s much more to it that meets they eyes. 🙂

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    1. I would hope to be loony as well. I wish I had a picture of the Moon to go along with this poem, but I only have a Samsung phone to take pictures and I don’t get good night photos with it–or maybe I don’t know how to use it right. Thank you!

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  19. The ballad metre is wonderful. I especially like how the shorter, trimetric lines provide the mental breaks for proper digestion, while the alternating lengths form its signature, lyrical cadence. As for the poem, it reminds me of Kermit and his Rainbow Connection (and my childhood nostalgia).

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    1. Interesting perspective on how the trimeter provides a mental break. It does break the monotony of tetrameter lines. This would probably be a poetic form that children would hear often. It is the same pattern as “Mary had a little lamb”. Thanks, Colin!

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  21. THE MOON

    The thing about the moon is that
    it is not quite a star.
    You know when you are looking at.
    You know when so you are.

    The moon, in fact, is very bright.
    An expert it is not.
    The star, you see, produces light.
    And it is much to hot.

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    1. I didn’t realize high winds did it as well, but they do take my breath away and make me want to stay inside. When I feel a bit strange and see a full Moon I wonder to myself if that had anything to do with it. Thanks, Lynn!

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    1. I hope I am, too. It occurred to me that for about six days of the Moon’s cycle, when it is full, it is in the magnetosphere (or specifically the “magnetotail” ) of the Earth. The magnetosphere apparently affects us and other species. I wonder if the Moon’s passing through the Earth’s magnetosphere is what influences this lunacy?

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  29. I wonder if lunacy coming from the lunation going through the solid ground’s magnetotail has any enquiry financial support it.

    There may be something to being a spot barmy during a full Moon with the Moon passing through the magnetotail has some impression on us.

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