On my ex and the moon
Recovering from his recent surgery is still extremely difficult for my ex-husband and very stressful. He has post-surgery pneumonia as his most serious problem at the moment, although not his only problem.
Yesterday I was at the hospital much of the afternoon and came home around 8:30 PM, but he called me again at around 11:00 PM and sounded awful. I simply couldn’t relax about it, and since I live just a few minutes from the hospital I went back there to check it out.
Fortunately, he was asleep. And also fortunately, I had a long talk with the nurse and she reassured me about various things. He’s certainly not out of the woods, but she seemed competent and on top of things.
And then, when I returned home and got out of my car, I happened to look up to the sky. The moon looked very unusual, and it occurred to me that this might be a lunar eclipse. So I got out my trusty cellphone and sure enough, it was! Plus, just by chance I happened to be stepping out of my car at the exact peak minute of the eclipse.
So that’s the silver lining, I guess.
I am sure it has been said, but bears repeating. Your ex-husband is very fortunate. You are treading a path that not everyone would take.
Blessings.
Prayers for your ex and you neo.
We were out last night looking at the eclipse. ALMOST total. There was a bird somewhere nearby crying loudly.
A good omen, one hopes.
(May all your difficult moments be eclipsed by joy…
…paraphrase of Psalm 126?)
Blessings to you for your care for your ex-husband. My son’s mother-in-law is likewise the main support – emotional, logistical, physiological – for her ex-husband, my son’s father-in-law. She is involved in his life, and in his care, on a daily basis, sometimes for hours at a time. A few weeks ago, I witnessed her and her daughter helping him get up from his chair and guiding him to the bathroom with his walker.
I was talking about this with my spiritual director the other day, and expressing my amazement and admiration. He said something to the effect of, “Well, it sounds like Tammy is on her way to sainthood.” Then he brought the hammer down: “What are you doing that is like what she is doing?”
Your updates on your ex-husband might at times seem to you to be too much personal information to be quite the thing on a blog devoted to public affairs and dance. Never think that. The example you are setting is an invitation to all your readers – and an admonition, and a warning – to do likewise with those who have injured them.
May God bless and keep you and your husband, both.
Lovely comment, Kristor. I agree with everything you say, from the very first sentence down to the last.May God bless all of you!
Prayers for you both.
“Evening summer breeze
The warbling of the meadowlark
Moonlight in Vermont”
You are doing God’s work, neo. All the best to you and your ex. I wish him a speedy recovery.
I second jd, Kristor. Well said!
The post-surgery pneumonia sounds bad, Neo. I hope he can fight through it.
One has moments with the moon. I know I have. Here’s one of my favorite Creeley poems, albeit in the winter sans eclipse:
___________________________
The Moon
Earlier in the evening the moon
was clear to the east,
over the snow of the yard
and fields–a lovely
bright clarity and perfect
roundness, isolate,
riding as they say the
black sky. Then we went
about our businesses of the
evening, eating supper, talking,
watching television, then
going to bed, making love,
and then to sleep. But before
we did I asked her to look
out the window at the moon
now straight up, so that
she bent her head and looked
sharply up, to see it.
Through the night it
must have shone on, in that
fact of things–another
moon, another night–a
full moon in the winter’s
space, a white loneliness.
I came awake to the blue
white light in the darkness,
and felt as if someone
were there, waiting, alone.
–Robert Creeley
I appreciate these updates, neo, even if I don’t comment on many of them. God bless. All the best.
M J R
I continue to wonder how a piece of writing which, if written as one paragraph or more, can be called poetry when it is only prose scattered around the page.
The fact that most of the sentences are about the moon does not make it poetry.
Stayin_Alive_555:
I go by Housman’s Razor:
__________________________________
Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.
–A. E. Housman
__________________________________
I get the Housman shivers from that Creeley poem. It’s a somewhat subjective measure.
Still I would say there is more to the poem than “prose scattered around the page.”
What is the “another moon” of which Creeley speaks?
BTW, did you catch Rufus’s 5-7-5 haiku earlier? Or was that just prose scattered on the screen?
huxley:
I know what you mean.
Also happens to me with some songs, especially those with great lyrics. Or poetry-songs, like this one.
@ Huxley: “… did you catch Rufus’s 5-7-5 haiku earlier? ”
I did not catch that so I went back for a detailed look.
If we are counting syllables, isn’t RTF’s “The warbling of the meadowlark.” really eight syllables and not seven? [But my quick search says “Modern Haiku: May deviate from the strict syllable count but retains the three-line format and the essence of capturing a moment or insight.”]
I am far from the English language/ poetry expert many are here, but my modest exposure to haiku seemed to strike me as having or desiring a feeling of a truncated impact or sudden impact supplied by the last line [at least when read in English; presuming the same intent in Japanese?].
I can’t speak to RTF’s intent, but I am not sure which of the several NE states Neo actually lives in: VT, NH, or MA. NH and MA clearly have way too many syllables*.
[I decided against attempting a haiku of my own. I cede that sphere to others.]
*and “syllables” has too many “l’s”. 🙂
R2L – the haiku is actually a Frank Sinatra song.
https://genius.com/Frank-sinatra-moonlight-in-vermont-lyrics
https://youtu.be/8J5XBZekdmE?si=7pHFZ9NoqmhYmXNO
@huxley on August 28, 2026 at 10:35 pm
@neo on August 28, 2026 at 10:44 pm
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Haiku has a specific format by which it is categorized.
I agree with R2L at 11:32 pm: “… my modest exposure to haiku seemed to strike me as having or desiring a feeling of a truncated impact or sudden impact supplied by the last line [at least when read in English; presuming the same intent in Japanese?].
Re: The Natalie Merchant “song” (“Spring and Fall….”), she takes what is an already great poem and drags it out in a way that I find unpleasant, just so that she can call it a “song”.
To each his own, I suppose, but whole books have been written about the definition of the word “Poetry”. (eg, “How Does a Poem Mean?”)
Quote:
“John Ciardi’s How Does a Poem Mean? (1959; expanded editions 1960 and 1975) is a foundational guide to reading poetry, explaining poetic elements and demonstrating how poems create meaning through form, sound, imagery, and reader engagement.”
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“Plus, just by chance I happened to be stepping out of my car at the exact peak minute of the eclipse.”
God was saying “Hello” Neo…gave you a beautiful sight as encouragement.