Day 28: The Moon Is a Silent Cymbal

Happy National Poetry Month 2023! Curious about what I’m doing? Want to play along? Read more here.

[Heads-up: If you’re visiting regularly, please know that the bold, blue text is what I’m writing fresh each day. The black text is the same each day:>) ]

The dragon must’ve exhausted me, because I immediately picked rest as my topic. But then none of the words went with it. When I saw “moon,” though, I felt that peaceful, calm feeling the moon gives me. Its steadiness and pale stillness is a beautiful anchor in the night sky. And “languid.” That makes me picture the moon up there lounging in a silver robe as it shakes its head, amused, at earthlings’ antics. Those words weren’t exactly available, though! The music words I saw also called to me, so that’s what I went with.

I have many favorite moon books, including my own gorgeously-illustrated-by-Jaime-Kim If You Were the Moon, plus Susanna Leonard Hill’s Moon’s First Friends. And I can’t wait for Melissa Stewart’s Thank You, Moon, and Irene Latham’s The Museum on the Moon, both coming later this year. 

What words will we be digging through today?

And here’s the card that we might pull our topic from:

So some possible topics are:

  1. escape
  2. control
  3. shift
  4. return
  5. computer

Will you join in? Would love to see what you come up with!

 

16 Responses

  1. Translucent music, night orchestra… that’s a beautiful new image of the moon.

    The music words spoke to me, too. The image is my daughter who played violin through middle school and high school.

    Music🎻

    Fingering fiddle
    Spirit free
    Music speaks
    I dance

    1. Diane, our daughters have kindred spirits. My youngest daughter played viola through elementary school, MS, HS, and college. I miss watching her play. I enjoy the sounds your alliteration and consonance make; it sounds like a song. I love the images you create.

  2. Laura, I love the title of this post too “The moon is a silent cymbal” readies us for your lovely wuiet poem. I liked that word languid and you used it so well here. I love “mouthing translucent music”

    Diane, lovely alliteration in that first sweet line, and I love that we both thought of the effect music has on our spirits.

    My title isn’t quite right, but I guess this can also be restful…

    Rest
    Moon music
    Frees your spirit
    For a long loving dance

    1. Denise, nice sounds with your alliteration and consonance. I like that it is the “moon music” that “frees your spirit” and I like that it is a “long” and “loving dance.” It’s interesting that Denise, you and I used the words free, music, and dance. Diane, Laura, and I used moon and music. Diane and I both chose fiddle, free music, and dance. Denise and Diane both used spirit and other alike words.

    2. Denise, I mostly come up with titles just to have something for the blog post title! :>D But I tend to think of the tile word as the actual title. I did like the silent cymbal metaphor, though–so, thanks! This is beautiful. It took me back to the funeral of a friend’s husband. He had planned his own ceremony, and they played Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” a song I didn’t know. Although I don’t think your poem’s about death, there’s such a peaceful feeling about it, and it brought me back to that sad but gorgeous time of celebrating a person’s life and a couple’s love. Thank you for writing…

  3. Well, I’m late starting NPM due to a long Covid illness. Laura, I think I understand the process and thank you for putting so much effort into NPM. I will go backwards in time to write more with your prompts.

    Music

    I long to
    fiddle fast
    dance free on
    summer moon

    1. Oh, Gail, welcome back. I’m so sorry about your long Covid illness. I love your poem, and it’s even better knowing what you’ve been through lately. “fiddle fast” and “dance free” are my favorites.

    2. Gail, I’m so sorry! I hope you’re feeling better now. What a joyous and carefree poem this is. It’s splendid!

  4. Laura, I am sorry I forgot to comment on the beautiful imagery in your poem. I love how you personify the moon, its languid moon, and you chose translucent music. I was going to use translucent because I love that word, but it didn’t fit. Thank you for this exercise.

    1. Oh, goodness. No worries, Gail. Doesn’t it hurt when there’s a word you *want* to use and just can’t fit it anywhere?

  5. Music with the moon makes one wonderful image! (Still working on PF posts)

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