Please Help Me Find This Poem About the Moon
October 14, 2019 6:48 PM   Subscribe

Please help me find the title and author of this poem. My partner put an audio version of it on a CD for me probably 8 years ago - long gone of course. Details below!

Poet (at least on the recording, not sure if original author): Older male, American, recording sounded recent in 2012 (not gravelly).

Subject: the moon. The poem is fairly short (4-5 stanzas), and alternates between a narrator describing the moon and the narrator quoting dialogue that is supposed to be the moon “speaking,” thinking to itself. There is a stanza where the moon follows a car.

Here is the one line that I’m pretty sure I’m remembering verbatim, though Google turns up nothing:

“The moon this and the moon that”

Toward the end of the poem the speaker takes on the perspective of the moon as it follows their car, and the moon says something like
“Where are you going? And will you _____?” maybe return? Take me with you?

This has been driving me slightly crazy - does this ring a bell to you? Thanks Hive!
posted by PuddleWonderful to Writing & Language (5 answers total)
 
No idea what this point might be but "Where are you going and what will you" seems like it might be an allusion to Wynken, Blynken and Nod...
posted by bibliotropic at 10:59 PM on October 14, 2019


Is it a children's book, perhaps?
posted by Enid Lareg at 7:32 AM on October 15, 2019 [1 favorite]


Well, Wynken, Blynken and Nod is gorgeous, four stanzas long and does have a line where the moon asks "where are you going and what do you wish?" (the moon is pretty active in general in the poem). However, it was written before cars and recordings were a thing (1880-ish), so if your memory of a car is strong I would rule it out.

Here are 100 poems about the moon. If it's at all well-known you'll probably find it there.
posted by ubiquity at 9:33 AM on October 15, 2019


Response by poster: Thank you all! None of these is it, unfortunately, but I love that the “where are you going?” Line is an allusion to Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. :) . Hoping more lines appear to me in a dream or something! I *know* that “the moon this and the moon that” is a line, and Google says that line isn’t found anywhere. Gah. Thanks again!
posted by PuddleWonderful at 3:04 PM on October 16, 2019


Response by poster: Hello! WE FOUND THE POEM!

My partner was going through old emails, and we found the audio file!

It’s : “Blue Moon” by Louis Jenkins 2004. I’m going to buy the collection to have it on paper, Since it doesn’t exist online. I’m trying to figure out a way to post the audio version because my link doesn’t seem to be working. Anyway thank you so much for helping me out at the time!


posted by PuddleWonderful at 4:45 PM on September 14, 2020 [1 favorite]


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