Blue Moon. Be careful! Strange events!

There's a Blue Moon rising on Friday 31st July. The second full moon in the calendar month, a blue moon is a seemingly random event that is really to do with lunar months being 28 days, and our calendar months 30 or 31.

I wrote a collection of poems about the night of the blue moon, imagining the moon's light shining through the windows of an old map shop, and the maps becoming liquid, and merging in the silvery light. And what happens to them in the shop happens outside as well. Some very odd things happen.

They are published in seed packet form, with the poems on separate sheets, held together with a little full moon shape clip. The packet is individually letterpress printed. I've been trying different packet forms for a few years now, and have finally found the one I really like!

You can buy one from my Etsy shop http://etsy.me/1SmwClh or come and see me at the Bath Artisan Market on 9th August, or Outlaw Summer Market in Falmouth on 10th, 11th, 12th August.
In the meantime - take care tonight and enjoy - the next blue moons are in January and March 2018!

magic under the moonlight

I leaned out of my bedroom window late last night and took this photo with my phone. I really like the windows of the house opposite appearing to be eyes, and the cloud rising up from the roof as if it was peeling it back.

How could magic not happen under the moonlight? 

Be careful what you do when the bright moon shines. 

Here's a poem from Blue Moon at the Map Shop, my collection of moon poems.

                                   changes

                                   light headed with sex

                                   alcohol and guilt,

                                   he walks back,

                                   footsteps loud in the sleeping street,

                                   he's thinking of home now,

                                   where everything is the same as before,

                                   he's considering the cold air he will bring

                                   to the second shared bed tonight,

                                   his skin is tingling,

 

                                   he is reassured,

                                   he is reluctant,

 

                                   he turns the corner,

 

                                   his house has gone.

 

Blue Moon poetry ready for Diffusion Publishing Fair

I have just finished making poetry seed packets, filled with blue moon poetry, ready for the fair at the Diffusion Festival Publishing weekend.

Here's a poem naming each moon;

12 regular moons & one extra
old moon snow moon
crow moon

grass moon planting moon
rose moon

hay moon green corn moon
harvest moon

hunter's moon frosty moon
long night moon

blue moon

Occasionally there are two full moons in a calendar month. The second one is known as a blue moon, although it's not actually blue. I like to think that there are changes and shifts under a blue moon. And where better for the changes to start than in a dusty old map shop, a place that holds so many directions and definitions.

I am bringing the collection to the Diffusion Festival Publishing Weekend at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, on 25th and 26th May. www.diffusionfestival.org

Here are future blue moons, so you can be prepared; July 2015, January & March 2018, October 2020. Be careful not to lose your way.