2UDC: DOI 10.24412/2713-1831-2024-2-40-45
POETIC ANTHOLOGY OF ECO-HUMAN EXPERIENCE. POEMS ABOUT THE MOON
■ The new section of our journal, "Poetic Anthology of Eco-Human Experience", presents poetry from different ages, dedicated to various facets of our human relationship with the moon as a natural object. Poetic works allow us to comprehend the eco-human, eco-poietic nuances of our ability, together with this natural phenomenon, to generate new facets of subjectivity, to discover new forms of experience and meanings revealed on the threshold of human and more-than-human reality.
Du Fu (712-770 AD) is one of the greatest poets of China and an outstanding classical luminary of the Tang Dynasty. He left a huge poetic legacy, about 1,400 poems, from quatrains to poems, varied in style and content. The most important source of inspiration in Du Fu's poetic work is nature. The close connection of his imaginative thinking, like many other representatives of classical Chinese poetry, with nature and the constantly changing phenomena of the living environment is obvious. 'Communication' with nature in his poetry is one of the main conditions for mental health and human's knowledge of themselves
Full Moon
Above the tower — a lone, twice-sized moon. On the cold river passing night-filled homes, It scatters restless gold across the waves. On mats, it shines richer than silken gauze.
Empty peaks, silence: among sparse stars, Not yet flawed, it drifts. Pine and cinnamon Spreading in my old garden . . . All light, All ten thousand miles at once in its light!
Konstantin Balmont (1867-1942), Russian symbolist poet, translator and essayist, one of the most prominent representatives of Russian poetry of the Silver Age. For Balmont, the Moon was an extremely attractive phenomenon, with which his entire system of images was closely connected. The moon took him into a special space of dreams, helping him to distance himself from everyday reality. Finding himself for some time the leader of the "new poetry," Balmont formulated its principles: the connection of symbolist poetry with the region of the "beyond," its penetration into the "mystery of the world."
Moonlight
When shines the moon amidst the dark of night With sickle's scintillation, bright and tender, It's then my spirit starts to take her flight, In thrall to all that's filled with distant splendour.
And in my dreams, I race towards the chases Of forest glades and snow-white mountain peaks; With pining soul I guard serene world's places, And sweetly weep and breathe by moon's mystique. I drink in all this pallid incandescence, And, elf-like, swing amidst the gridded rays, And bend my ear to bliss's silent accents. My people's passions fade then in the distance, And alien are all earthly struggling days, I am a cloud, a breath of wind's quintessence.
Mina Loy (1882-1966) was a poet and artist, futurist, dadaist, surrealist, feminist, conceptualist, modernist and postmodernist. Her "Lunar Baedeker" poem, first published in 1923, stands out as a significant piece in the modernist poetry landscape, reflecting the unique style and bold themes that characterize Loy's works. In this poem she sets the stage with a captivating mix of celestial imagery and abstract concepts. The poem acts as a guide to a deep inner exploration of psychic reality, paving the way not only through physical space, but also through various spheres of intuition, visionary mind and consciousness
Lunar Baedeker
A silver Lucifer serves cocaine in cornucopia To some somnambulists of adolescent thighs draped
in satirical draperies Peris in livery Prepare Lethe
for posthumous parvenues Delirious Avenues lit
with the chandelier souls of infusoria
from Pharoah's tombstones lead
to mercurial doomsdays Odious oasis in furrowed phosphorous
the eye-white sky-light
white-light district
of lunar lusts
Stellectric signs
"Wing shows on Starway"
"Zodiac carrousel"
Cyclones
of ecstatic dust
and ashes whirl
crusaders
from hallucinatory citadels
of shattered glass
into evacuate craters
A flock of dreams
browse on Necropolis
From the shores
of oval oceans
in the oxidized Orient
Onyx-eyed Odalisques
and ornithologists
observe
the flight
of Eros obsolete
And "Immortality"
mildews ...
in the museums of the moon "Nocturnal cyclops" "Crystal concubine" Pocked with personification the fossil virgin of the skies waxes and wanes
Edward Estlin Cummings (1894-1962) was an American writer, artist, poet and playwright. In his experimental poetry, Cummings sought to free poetic language from romantic clichés and other conventions; experimented with the form of poetry: in his works, lowercase and capital letters, spaces, punctuation marks, and auxiliary parts of speech often do not obey the rules of grammar and punctuation, appearing in unexpected places in the text, giving it a kind of visual expressiveness. His simple and expressive language, sense of humor and exploitation of themes such as sex and war earned him enormous popularity, especially among young people. It is not just his vices and exaggerations, the defects of his qualities, that make a writer popular.
Amores (III)
there is a moon sole in the blue night
amorous of waters tremulous,
blinded with silence the
undulous heaven yearns where
in tense starlessness
anoint with ardor
the yellow lover
stands in the dumb dark
svelte
and
urgent
(again
love i slowly gather
of thy languorous mouth the
thrilling
flower)
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), is one of the most celebrated figures in American poetry, the author of numerous poetry collections on universal themes infused with psychological complexity and layers of ambiguity and irony. His poetry, characterized by its accessible language and deceptively simple style, explores themes of nature, rural life, and the human condition. Frost's writing is rooted in the pastoral tradition, drawing inspiration from the landscapes and people of New England. However, he transcends mere regionalism by imbuing his work with universal themes of loss, choice, and the search for meaning. While seemingly straightforward, his poems often contain layers of meaning that invite multiple interpretations. This depth, combined with his masterful use of imagery and symbolism, contributes to his lasting appeal.
Moon Compasses
I stole forth dimly in the dripping pause Between two downpours to see what there was And a masked moon had spread down compass rays To a cone mountain in the midnight haze As if the final estimate were hers, As if the final estimate were hers, And as it measured in her calipers, The mountain stood exalted in its place. So love will take between the hands a face...
David Bowie (1947-2016), was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The song, "Moonage Daydream," with his music and lyrics, originally recorded as a single in 1971, was later re-recorded with his new band "The Spiders from Mars," especially for the upcoming album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." As the years have passed, "Moonage Daydream" has achieved its status as one of the greatest compositions in Bowie's discography. The imagery that space alien Ziggy Stardust uses in this song reinforces the "erotic fantasy" of the chorus, associated with the tradition of "muse poetry" which was associated with "ancient cults that worshiped the moon as the goddess of magic, the subconscious, poetic inspiration for accessing imagination without using the intellect."
Moonage Daydream
I'm an alligator
I'm a mama-papa comin' for you
I'm the space invader
I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you
Keep your mouth shut
you're squawking like a pink monkey bird
And I'm bustin' up my brains for the words
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!
Don't fake it baby, lay the real thing on me
The church of man, love
Is such a holy place to be
Make me baby, make me know you really care
Make me jump into the air
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!
Keep your 'lectric eye on me, babe
Put your ray gun to my head
Press your space face close to mine, love
Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!
Freak out, far out, in out
