Harvest Moon 2020

Two full moons frame the month of October 2020. Tonight we enjoy the Harvest Moon. On Oct 31 the Blue Moon casts its shadows across a Halloween night.

The moon, like a flower in heaven's bower, with silent delight sits and smiles on the night.

                                                                                        William Blake

The full Harvest Moon rises as sun sets. For many years I was fortunate to witness October's full moon emerge from the sea. It was always a sublime event powered by the realization that you were a witness to a sensory immersion experienced by coastal inhabitants for thousands of years.  There under a star-filled dome land, wind, and water create the timeless sound of surf that captures and commands our consciousness. Add the rising moon and expect the surreal. 

Lowcountry moonrise, McQueens Island, Savannah, Georgia 1951

“...Her eyes, he says, are stars at dusk,

Her mouth as sweet as red-rose-musk;

And when she dances his young heart swells

With flutes and viols and silver bells;

His brain is dizzy, his senses swim,

When she slants her ragtime eyes at him...

Moonlight shadows, he bids her see,

Move no more silently than she.

It was this way, he says, she came,

Into his cold heart, bearing flame.

And now that his heart is all on fire

Will she refuse his heart's desire?―...”

                    Conrad Aiken

The harvest moon is climbing high. Go outside. Get lost in it. Smile back.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
National Park Service, Fort Pulaski National Monument handbook, 1954

Text:
intro quotation, William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience, originally published in 1789.
poem excerpt, Conrad Aiken