Blue Moon

I have grown tired of the moon, tired of its look of astonish-
ment, the blue ice of its gaze, its arrivals and departures, of
the way it gathers lovers and loners under its invisible wings,
failing to distinguish between them. I have grown tired of
so much that used to entrance me, tired of watching cloud
shadows pass over sunlit grass, of seeing swans glide back and 
forth across the lake, of peering into the dark, hoping to find
an image of a self as yet unborn. Let plainness enter the eye,
plainness like the table on which nothing is set, like a table that
is not yet even a table.

-- "Nocturne of the Poet Who Loved the Moon" by Mark Strand

 

 

Comments

[Flannista]

One quick reading and you'd think this poem is depressing.

Read it again.

[Flannista]

I love the use of the word, "entrance" in the fifth line. Why isn't it "enter" or "interest"?

[Flannista]

This poem is from Almost Invisible, Strand's latest book of poetry to be released this March:

http://www.amazon.com/Almost-Invisible-Poems-Mark-Strand/dp/0307957314/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325757541&sr=1-1

Needless to say, it's on my Amazon wish list.

[Flannista]

What does this evocation mean?:

"Let plainness enter the eye"

[treesta]

I especially like the line, "of the way it gathers lovers and loners under its invisible wings, failing to distinguish between them."

Why did he make a point of adding, "failing to distinguish between them"?

[Flannista]

Is the poet tired of having to distinguish between them himself? Does the poet no longer see a distinction?

[treesta]

"Let plainness enter the eye."

He wants to look again. To strip away all preconception, all expectation, in order. So often we see only what we expect to see. So often what we see is what we want to see. Start again. See what's there.

[treesta]

Why did you pick this poem on this morning, Flann?

[treesta]

I can tell I sat down to comment before sipping my first taste of coffee. Delete 'in order' in my 5:31 comment, if only in your mind. Yes, let plainness enter not only the eye, but the words.

[treesta]

I like the image of the moon gazing down with invisible wings.

New beginnings. Yes.

[Flannista]

I first read it a couple of days ago after being hooked by the opening phrase, "I have grown tired of the moon" which captured pretty much the weariness I've been feeling about trying to figure out what I need to be doing in my life right now. So I read on, assuming the rest of the poem would be a complete bummer. But then I got to, "Let plainness enter the eye" -- and thought about looking again. (Your assessment in your 5:31 a.m. comment is spot on.)

Start again. See what's there.

It's a New Year. How are you, others, starting again? I was so relieved to read this as Mary Karr's status on FB this morning: "taking a hiatus from facebook. happy new year".

Good for her. Bet more poems come as a result.

[Flannista]

treesta -- I didn't even SEE "in order" the first time I read your 5:31 comment. Not to worry.

To get the New Beginnings ball rolling, I am today driving to my county's school administration building to be fingerprinted IN ORDER to lead some volunteer writing/creativity classes in treesta's school. Don't know where this will take me, but I do know those kids will teach me a lot. Can't wait to see what's there.

[treesta]

Smile. Awesome. Can't wait to see what's there myself.

[treesta]

For my New Beginnings, I'm working on being comfortable in my own skin, in my own space. I'm not rushing to fill my empty times and spaces with other people, rather I'm resting with myself, and letting that be ok. I think that's why the line about lovers and loners struck me so.

[Flannista]

For me, one of the achievements of this poem is that it is, in itself, an example of how to start again and see what's there. After writing this, I bet the poet was no longer tired of the moon.

[nowayasista]

I don't know if I can be that deep about the moon. Blue or otherwise. Its up there. I see it most mornings and nights. This morning gemini was almost directly over the house. Slipping up a little to the north and fading back to the west as daylight beckoned. Sirius was still flashing to the southwest. Not giving in until it had to. Never been one for new beginnings or proclamations of such. There are 365 days in the year. While we use the moon and stars to keep our calendars, I doubt if they keep their own. The human need to classify and define vs. the natural state of just letting things be. Good for you for volunteering at the school, Flan. The kids and you will get a lot from it.

[frida]

I think Strand's using a literary device that starts with the opposite of what he means...the moon so splendid, as a poet he can't find words. Or as in "I come to bury Caesar..." Then moves into a beautiful kind of Eastern view of the beauty of the plain...
Love noway's list of the night sky.
Thanks again for giving us poetry, Flann.
I've been thinking of you!

[PEACEsista]

Beautiful. Lovely synchronicity:

I read from Thich Nhat Hanh's "Transformation at the Base" this morning. He says that much suffering is caused by misperceptions ... by not seeing things as they really are. Strand knows that, too and wrote it as a poem.

[Matissta]

The use of "entrance me" is very curious to me. It made me re-read that line. Funny that Flann noted it as well.

I like the line, "...hoping to find an image of a self as yet unborn." Perhaps he was weary, but as he writes on he discovers there is so much more. Just a guess.

[PEACEsista]

It's one of those words with a dual meaning, pronounced differently:

entrance, as in a doorway

or

entrance, as in fill with wonder and delight, holding their entire attention.

I read it as the second. Did some of you read it as the first? Of course, it could be either one.

[half-a-sista]

Blue Moon. What an odd choice of a name for this post. A blue moon occurs when a three-month season has four full moons. The last blue moon was in November 2010 and the next one is in August 2013. The poem talks about stripping the moon of the mysteries put on it over the years. In fact, the poem wants us to take all the mysteries off nature and see the world as it is, plain, in its essence.

Maybe he wants us to see life as it is without all the "meaning" we give it so it seems to make sense. A kind of "be in the moment" philosophy that we hear so much about.

[half-a-sista]

Nocturnes are by their nature gloomy. (Exceptions do exist.)

[half-a-sista]

"Entrance" is what the mysteries of the moon do. "Enter me"...well, I think it's obvious why that wasn't what he meant. "Interest me" implies that something has piqued my curiosity and doesn't carry the same weight at "entrance me."

Treesta nailed it in her 5:53 a.m. comment.

Flann, I think you would be fun to have as a teacher. you have a fun spirit. Good luck with your fingerprinting.

[Flannista]

Well, I'm back from fingerprinting and a quick 4.5-mile walk.

For some reason, I fully expected that my fingertips would be blue/black with ink, but fingerprinting -- like everything else -- is electronic these days. The technician sticks your fingers on a screen pad, the computer reads the image and then pronounces it "excellent", "good", "poor" or "no reading." I got a couple of "no readings".

FLANN: How is it possible that the print is a "no reading"?

TECH: It's your little finger that doesn't get much use. The skin is very thin there.

Learn something new every day.

[Flannista]

frida -- speaking of learning something new every day, what is the name of the literary device where the poet starts with the opposite of what he/she means?

Also, what's the best poetry primer out there? I read a lot of it, but I don't know the basics, like the name of that literary device.