When I Stepped Outside for My Early Morning Walk

When I Stepped Outside for My Early Morning Walk

I was met by the moon,
full and bright, hanging low.
Good morning, Moon, I said.
What do you know?
And Moon said, Glow.

Few will notice
fewer will care.
All the more reason to always be there
and glow.

Waxing is joyous
waning is real.
Whether a sliver or the whole wheel,
you glow.

Find some light
get in its way
reflect that light with beam or ray
and glow.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

The Moon

The 50th anniversary of the first moon landing has come and gone, but these books need a belated spotlight.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11
by Brian Floca
Review copy compliments of Richard Jackson Books, 2019

The Kirkus review for this revised 2019 edition:

“A fresh, expanded edition of Floca’s top-drawer tribute to the first moon landing, which won a Sibert honor in 2010. New here is an early nod to the “thousands of people” who worked behind the scenes to make the mission a success... and a much-enlarged account of Apollo 11’s return flight to Earth. Both include new art: For the first, a set of vignettes clearly depicts women and people of color playing prominent roles (including a recognizable Katherine Johnson), and for the second, the 2009 original’s two pages grow to eight, climaxed by a close-up of the command module Columbia’s furious, fiery re-entry. The narrative... remains as stately and dramatic as ever.... Minor changes in other illustrations and added or clarified details in the text add further life and luster to a soaring commemoration of our space program’s most spectacular achievement. This is the rare revised edition that adds enough new material to demand purchase. Still essential reading, more so than ever for being broader in scope and more balanced of presentation than the original.”

I can't wait to share the story of how Brian Floca revised this book to be more inclusive!

Countdown: 2979 Days to the Moon
by Suzanne Slade
illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez
Peachtree Publishing Company, 2018

This gorgeously illustrated nonfiction long-form picture-book-in-verse begins with the dream of space travel and the loss of President John F. Kennedy. Then comes Apollo 1 and the loss of the first three Apollo astronauts. Apollo 2 is grounded and plans for Apollo 3 cancelled. Apollos 4-6 are unmanned and have mixed successes. Apollo 7 takes men into space successfully. Apollo 8 flies around to the far side of the moon and back. Apollo 9 astronauts are the first to walk in space. Apollo 10 scouts a landing spot on the moon. Finally, Apollo 11 achieves the dream of men on the moon.

At the end of each chapter is more information about each of the astronauts and photographs from the mission.

This would make a fabulous read aloud (text in verse AND nonfiction) and pairs nicely with Moonshot.

Poetry Friday -- Moon

Unsplash photo by Sadman Sakib

Moon
by Amy E. Sklansky

Marvelous
Opaque
Orb.
Night-light
           for the world.

Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year in Islamic culture. It is a lunar-based month-long time of fasting and celebration. Ramadan 2019 begins on Sunday or Monday (the new moon is May 4, and the actual date of the beginning of Ramadan is contingent on the first sighting of the moon), and many of our Muslim students (and all of our Muslim staff) will be fasting from dawn to sunset through the month of Ramadan. This month of fasting, prayer, community, and charity culminates with the festival of Eid ul Fitr.

Only about 20% of Muslims live in (or are from) Arab countries. South Asia contains the largest population of Muslims in the world. My students who will observe Ramadan are from Morocco, Sudan, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Pakistan.

Jama has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup.

Poetry Friday -- The Moon

Photo via Unsplash

Trans-
by Rita Dove


The moon is in doubt
over whether to be
a man or a woman.

There’ve been rumors,
all manner of allegations,
bold claims and public lies:

He’s belligerent. She’s in a funk.

(read the rest at Poets.org)

The moon. Today, January 3, 2019, the Chinese landed a rover on the far side of the moon. (How did I miss that they landed a rover on the near side of the moon in 2013?!?) 

Coincidentally, I just finished listening to Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race. It was all kinds of eye-opening -- the lingering effects of Jim Crow, discrimination against women, the evolution of computing from human to machine, and that the cost of space exploration was seen as extravagant when huge segments of the population were economically depressed (suppressed). Similarly, in this New York Times article about the Chinese landing, a citizen was quoted, “The economy is bad,” she said. “Is it really a good thing for the country to spend recklessly?” Echoes of the past.

And my birthday/Christmas present got hung tonight. My sweetheart "lassoed the moon" for me. Five different phases of the moon, to be exact: handmade ceramic representations of waxing crescent, first quarter, full, last quarter, and waning crescent. Just like photos of the real moon taken with a mortal camera, this photo doesn't do the installation justice.

Sylvia at Poetry for Children has our first Poetry Friday Roundup of the year with a sneak peek of poetry books that will be published in 2019!

Poetry Friday

photo via Unsplash by Stan Mart!n!

When the Moon is One Day From Full

and the kitchen counter is crowded
with jars containing caterpillars
and chrysalises,
it is nearly impossible to resist
the words
transformation
or
miracle.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


Catherine has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Reading to the Core.