Burning the midnight oil versus lunar madness

Yesterday, I had a most touching email from one of my dear blogging friends who asked if I was okay. Apparently, my posts are as regular as clockwork but I hadn’t posted anything for a week: no Monday Morning Haiku and two missed Wordless Wednesdays. Also, I left it too late to invite anyone to fill October’s guest storyteller slot.

Apologies all round, but I’ve been busy absorbing loads of new info about formatting a novel so the result looks professional both in paperback and in eBook form. There’s a huge amount of contradictory information out there, some of it unnecessarily complicated: thus I’m working hard to ascertain the simplest way to achieve the best result.

While I focus on this for the next week, or maybe two, I’m going to leave you with a progressive haiku centred around the phases of the moon. For your information, the names in the poem belong to two Japanese Shinto deities: Tsukuyomi the Moon God, and Amaterasu the Sun Goddess.

MoonlitSky1

lunar haikai

under cutglass stars
she dreams of Tsukuyomi
new moon love potion

nocturnal circus
leg draped over crescent moon
girl hangs upside down

gibbous halfway house
shadow night crickets gossip
she needs sedating

full moon tree-trunk spin
naked dancing on silver
she coruscates dew

blackbird sings her home
waning moon ambushed by dawn
Amaterasu

 

Author: Sarah Potter Writes

Sarah is a British eccentric who writes offbeat fiction, haiku and tanka poetry. When stuck for words, she sketches or paints instead. She's into nature conservation, sustainability, gardening, dogs, natural health, and reading. Her sociability is something that happens in short bursts with long breathing spaces in between.

26 thoughts on “Burning the midnight oil versus lunar madness”

  1. “Cutglass stars”? “Gibbous halfway house”? Coruscating dew?! Whoa, Sarah! Shiveringly fantastic turns of phrase. So very glad to see you’re not ailing or anything negative, merely hard at work ‘behind the scenes’ on your book.

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    1. Am so glad you enjoyed my poem. I rather like your turn of phrase “shiveringly fantastic”, too! Thanks for your concern at my disappearance. I’m feeling rather neglectful of everybody, but am not the quickest worker, which means that I make a habit of running out of hours most days. There must be an equivalent expression to “Her eyes are bigger than her belly” that goes something like, “Her goals are bigger than the time available”!

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  5. Ahh dearest Sarah, see how greatly you are missed? But it’s so good that you are focusing on your book formatting and we all understand and will welcome you back with open arms when you return. Meanwhile, I absolutely adore your beautiful progressive haiku, the telling of such a magical and mystical story. Lovely photo too. Hoping that you are progressing…almost there my dear friend 🙂 xxxx

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    1. Dearest Sherri, I’ve half-returned today, as a fortnight is quite long enough to totally neglect my blog. I’m so glad you adored my haiku. I’m sort of progressing but having a real battle finding out exactly what I want to know about ISBNs. I won’t bore you with it now, but there’s always something that delays the completion of projects. And my, dear friend, I’m painfully aware of neglecting you by being so unsociable. Hopefully, I will return to human form soon, and disconnect from my PC for a few hours for a meet-up and a celebration that I’ve succeeded in sending off for a printed proof of my book prior to publication. Will do a long catch email when I’ve got to that stage 🙂 xxxx

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      1. I wish I could advise with things like ISBNs…I do hope you find your answers. It is so hard juggling everything, and please don’t worry for a second about neglecting me, you most certainly are not, I fully understand and support you in your work which is vital. But, of course, I so look forward to hearing from you when you are at your desired point…and I’ll leave it to you re dates, but I wanted to take any pressure off you, as your book is your priority! I managed to get my chapters into one yesterday…but blogging suffered as I have been terribly late in replying to comments. But it is how it is. Here’s to you publication…and soon! Hugs to you, see you soon dear friend!!! 🙂 xxx

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    1. Thank you, Andrea 🙂 The trouble with doing good things for my book, is that I neglect other online activities. I’ve been away a fortnight and have returned to find that some people are obviously miffed at my absence, as about a dozen of them have stopped following my blog. It’s all a real juggling act. I’ve noted that you’re having a sabbatical, too, in order to concentrate on your latest novel. All the best with it and looking forward to your return … no pressure, of course!

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