Moonstruck

Looking around me, I do not see a state-of-the-art world.  That's to be expected when one is (for the moment) residing in and looking at the world from behind the eyeballs of the West.  But it's no better when I read the news and views from my tanah air  and all I can see is this.

I think it's time for a a little pick-me-up.

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It will be a full moon tonight on 8 October at 11.50am BST.  Also on this day the eclipse of the moon will be visible from countries around the Pacific Ocean including Malaysia.

Down here , this is all the moon I can get.  I think it's just as spectacular because I love the moon and moonlight in whatever shape and colour it comes.

Here are my feeble attempts at capturing the full moon, using my not-the-state-of-the-art camera (for dummies) from the vantage point of our not-the-state-of -the-art abode in a middling midland city.

Image 1.  The full moon playing hide-and-seek behind the clouds, taken from the front of our abode at 8.10pm.

Image 2.  Same place, same moon, a few minutes later - the moon  (like The Truth) is veiled from our eyes

Image 3. The moon has shifted,  clockwise to the rear of the house at 11.25pm.

The moon has always been a symbol of romance and childhood (and witchcraft and lunacy as well!).  I have often been described as loopy, loony and a right old wicked witch of the east.  But my love of the lure of the moon comes from schooldays, the beginning of a fascination which I picked up from Malay and English school textbooks.

In Malay: from my Primary School textbook Beneh Akal.

In English: from a poem by Mathias Barr (1831 - ?)

Moon, so round and yellow,
Looking from on high, 
How I love to see you,
Shining in the sky.

Oft and oft I wonder, 
When I see you there, 
How they get to light you,
Hanging in the air.

Where you go at morning,
When the night is past,
And the sun comes peeping,
O'er the hills at last.

Sometimes I will watch you,

Slyly overhead,
When you think I'm sleeping,
Snugly in my bed.


Nevertheless, I still hope to see 'Hey diddle, diddle's'  The cow jumped over the moon!

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Murni sungguh ciptaan Tuhan,
Bulan bintang lampu alam.
Andai kata bintang menyepi,
Bulan tidak berseri.
Malam menjadi sunyi.
Tidak berseri lagi.

We still have  the moon and the stars over Malaysia but there is very little light - it has been obscured by the heat of hypocrisy, greed, deceit and opportunism.