I was pleased to be asked to write a poem about The Full Moon for The Guardian’s Local Edinburgh Website. Now, it is always a challenge to write a poem to a deadline but it was also fun to do and gave me a chance to (once again) steal Nic Darling’s old line — “The moon is a patron of the arts”. Thanks Nic and thanks to Anna B. for the extra lines when I needed them. Thanks also to Tom Allan who foisted this poetic gauntlet upon me. I’m not sure if it is a good poem and it will certainly need some editing in the future, but I’m glad she exists and it is nice to be on this fine new blog.

Enjoy the pictures (and words) as they fly through the air!

From the Original:

The images below are from different photographers across the Edinburgh taking photos of the same moon, on the same night, but with different styles and foregrounds.

Some of the skylines might be familiar – the moon over Arthur’s Seat, the Camera Obscura, or the gothic spire of the Hub.

Others are rooftops that look ordinary in the day – but at night, silhouetted by the moon, you can zoom in and select some unusual details. You start to see strange shapes, more akin to pyramids, Aztec temples or Buddhist monasteries, on the roofs of Marchmont flats or the Royal Mile.

Poet Ryan Van Winkle of the Scottish Poetry Library also composed this poem for the night.

Link to this audio

You can catch Ryan’s weekly poetry podcasts here.