Welcome to the October edition of MOON LIT,continuing to deliver the international platform for lunar influenced new literature. It may in fact be the only one.
Those of a moonish persuasion are in for a literary Oktober Fest this month as I introduce the disarmingly vulnerable, rarely beer influenced, poetry of Nancy Govern. A long time member of our international Mooning Community, Nancy has been writing primarily for pleasure over the years but I'm delighted she has offered to share some of her work with the MOON LIT readership this autumn. Read on and raise your glasses of poetic appreciation to our Nancy.
So what have the heavens to say on this autumnal Libra New Moon? Astrologically, it's a mixed bag with the potential for slips and trips on unseen hazards below the surface of an apparently idyllic carpet of fallen leaves. Tread carefully dear ones. Libra is traditionally seen as the astrological sign of balance but the prevailing cosmic currents are likely to tie our laces together in all manner of knots.
Mars is the main culprit - a force of passion, energy and initiative, it doesn't take much to tip its influence into combative anger and violence. Unfortunately, under this Libra New Moon there's an uncomfortable aspect to Uranus and a couple of attendant aggressive stars that could inspire more destructive impulses of self-righteous retaliation and revenge.
In short, this is a moon under which to be mindful...nay, extremely cautious, as we traverse the tightrope of indignant thought into action. We don't want to be starting any unnecessary wars. The suggestion is to avoid rising swiftly to anger, to sit on our self-righteousness... smile... and act with civil grace and humility. Inwardly we can champion our transcendent superiority of course (lol) but in outwardly curtailing our need to be right, everyone ends up a winner. For the moment, we can afford to let others have their externally validated moments of triumph, unless cruelty or abhorrent discrimination is at play, and celebrate the conscious part we have played in a more peaceful world.
In a month's time the much anticipated COP26 Climate Change (Crisis) Conference will be in full swing. I am delighted to report that I will have a major sculpture installation "Burnt Wood" displayed on the main concourse of the conference Green Zone throughout proceedings. 5 metres in length and 4 wide and tall, it's a weighty interactive piece made from 100% recycled plastic in collaboration with an award winning, carbon negative recycling plant in North Wales.
Despite it's clear representation of five burnt trees rising from a barren block landscape, I hope it proves to be a social focal point at the conference, on which people can play, sit, lounge and engage with the vital issues of our times. Pictures to come at a later date, however the prospect of COP26 leading to more wilful obfuscation of the ideological issues inherent to our global consumerist culture, fill me with trepidation. The uncomfortable pill that we in the rich, developed world have to digest is that catastrophe is coming (for many it has already arrived) unless we create and consume less of everything. That means NOT simply striving to buy a new, resource guzzling electric car but not buying a new car at all. (New electric car and phone battery production is creating a global pollution crisis on an unprecedented scale - article)
Economic growth cannot be sustained despite the prevailing male-led, competitive braggadocio of every national and political persuasion. Ultimately, there is very little left to safely plunder in its blind pursuit. GROWTH IS NOT SUSTAINABLE!!.....end of.
And, as we here in the UK complain about the sudden decline of available products for purchase because of recent breaks in the supply chain, perhaps we should instead be considering, in a truly positive sense, how we can happily go without.
It's a massive paradigm shift that contradicts everything we have been conditioned to accept as the primary social purpose of our working adult lives. Sadly, under this Libra New Moon when temper tantrums are likely to be order of the day, I'm not sure it is a message most people will want to hear - regardless of the unfolding, dreadful consequences in ignoring it. We are currently, little but mewling, shopping trolley bound infants, screaming in the sweetie aisle for products that are going to poison us. We need to grow up and lose the sweet tooth ....today.
Let's help this Libra New Moon provide some much needed balance in the currently non-existent debate about curtailing economic growth, by committing secular heresy: proving through our (trans)actions that we need less than previously thought to bring equitable positive change, peace and well being to All.
Buy less, Love more. Amen.
NANCY GOVERN
Poet Nancy Govern lives and works in close proximity to Mooning HQ, in the leafy county of Surrey. She is a founder member of ArtClub™, an international artist collective that aspires to inspire positive change in the world through their creative endeavour.
Her written work is a considered, mature blend of observation and concern never completely losing itself in the pressing and depressing concerns of our age. There is always hope, redemption, forgiveness and Love, her poetry embodies them all. Enjoy her measured triptych on time. Tune in to the meter of your breath then make time to read again.
DARK MOON
My vision of the world is dark, like this moon,
Blanketed by a near perfect childhood yet
Tarred by the wounds of an open heart.
Between bright naivety and the burning courage to trust
there is a sunless space in which
to be broken and re-member
that relentless detail speaks nothing of me
nothing of true darkness
just layered context quilted from the past.
MY BLIND MIRROR
Superimposed on all that ever was or ever will be We hardly exist Dust, somewhere in the universe.
Lorded as the axis of all time and space Omnipresent 'me time'
Overwhelms existence,
Prises and divides a heaven
Into so many dilute hells
Like it’s the only way to prosper.
CALENDAR
Creator of calendars
We looked to you
And were given time
Without a manual.
A corruptible file, hastily downloaded
Can introduce information without applicable wisdom
To degrade an operating system.
Retrospective instruction
Does not undo the damage done,
The programme runs live
A persistent prescribed impulse
Sniffing out cracks to cement with error.
We are virally un-done
Purchasing more of the same code off the shelf:
Headless and harmful habits
Compulsive
Self serving And planet illiterate.
Tik Tok.
The time that we were given
Is a straining app
Overdue an update.
Nancy Govern 2021
Welcome once again through the perennially open doors of our very own art gallery MOON LIT DISPLAY. Exhibiting drawings, paintings, prints and sculpture with a lunar bent, visual artists share their most recent creative output alongside our literary guests, ensuring our exhibits complement the contemporary, enquiring nature of the prose and poetry.
Under this Virgo New Moon, Nancy Govern's poetry is accompanied by a selection of new (and long overdue) paintings by the artist Heather Mann. Since her last exhibitions in Switzerland in 2015 Heather has kept her work pretty much to herself. I'm delighted that she has decided to offer our privileged readers a taste of the vibrant intensity that is currently emerging from her inimitable brush. You can see more of Heather's work on her website www.heathermann.carbonmade.com
Just so you know, MOON LIT seeks to present literature and artwork that celebrates and reveres, marvels, champions and cherishes, whilst never shirking the necessary excavation of life's rich shadows in search of the priceless shining diamonds within. Each edition is a poetic invitation to contemplate our reading of, and reaction to, circumstance, that we may more consciously direct our thoughts, words and actions toward positive benefit for All.
Throughout 2021 MOON LIT will offer a monthly meditative pause under the poetic guidance of our distinguished literary guests. It is hoped readers will find time in hectic schedules to unhurriedly savour their literary craft; to read and reread these new perspectives on the miraculous, beguiling life experience to which we all belong.
MOON LIT publishes at new moon alongside its full moon sister publication MOONING MONTHLY that offers loosely astrological lunar forecasts for the coming month. (Mooning Monthly 121 'FULL CIRCLE' still available here) Subscribe for free HERE at your leisure to ensure both emails hit your inbox when it matters.
And of course, do please share MOON LIT with friends and family of similar lunar sensitivities, in the hope that this illuminating endeavour brightens our currently challenging, darkened times with the light of beauty and Love.
With love 'til next time
Mark
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
Like what you've read in MOON LIT? To ensure you receive your poetic pause at every new moon please use the link here and register. It's free and joining our mailing list helps avoid the email ending up with the offers of cheap viagra in your spam box. Just click HERE. Please feel free to share the MOON LIT love with friends.
