Saturday, November 13, 2010

Half Moon

for MH

a cup half filled with time
a willow tree spilling
apparitions

a silver cloud
a star tattoo on the upper arm a
blue moment

a sip of tea on Clement Street
a calla lily a recollection a
bicycle

a telephoto lens trained on an-
other time & place a blank
calendar page

a cup of shaved ice a
1930s Windsor banjo a
waning moon

Jack Hayes
© 2010


Hope you enjoyed this new poem, which was inspired by my misreading a friend’s comment on her beautiful photograph of a half moon.  What she actually said was, “I’m trying to think of this as a cup half full time.”  What I read was, “I’m trying to think of this as a cup half full of time.”  Admittedly, I believe there were hypens in the original comment, but I didn't let that deter my misreading.

In other news on the poetry front: I recently was interviewed for the Tangerine Tree Press blog about my book The Spring Ghazals.  It was a challenging & insightful interview, & I’m delighted by how it turned out.  Many thanks to Sheila Graham-Smith for the fine work she did on this!  Hope you’ll check it out—you can do so at this link.

Finally—not to belabor a point—if you’re if you’re thinking of buying The Spring Ghazals, what better time to do it than when you can purchase The Spring Ghazals for $10.20 instead of $12.00?  All you need to do is enter coupon code LEAF305 between now & 11:59 p.m. on November 15th when you checkout with The Spring Ghazals at Lulu.  Here’s the link for purchasing the book.
 

8 comments:

  1. Well, what a happy mishearing, John! This is delightful, a cataract of lunar images, which all chime beautifully together. Fine stuff!

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  2. I love the notion of the moon being a cup, half full of time. You actually had me at "willow".

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  3. Hi Dick & Willow

    Dick: Thanks--I did think it was a nice case of misprision myself!

    Willow: Now you are one person who's glad I have a willow tree right outside my office window! Glad you liked it.

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  4. I love this - all those cool, serene, blue white images. The opening stanza especially is amazing; not only the "misread comment" in the first line, but the willow tree that seems to be spilling apparitions is fantastic.

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  5. Hi HKatz: so happy you liked it! Thanks.

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  6. How wonderful that the misreading would lead to such a beautiful poem.

    I like the cup of shaved ice. I like it all actually.

    Kat

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  7. brilliant view on the moon.
    thanks for sharing.

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  8. Hi Jingle Poetry: Thanks--glad you liked it.

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