{"id":804,"date":"2016-01-31T18:08:48","date_gmt":"2016-01-31T18:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olioweb.me.uk\/wordpress_marcus\/?p=804"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:06:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T16:06:58","slug":"poem-of-the-month-february-2016-mesmerized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/?p=804","title":{"rendered":"Poem of the month, February 2016: Mesmerized"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MESMERIZED<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was hoping to see an angel<br \/>\nbut all I can see is the moon.<\/p>\n<p>The perfectly round white shining<br \/>\ndisc in the sky stares through the window.<\/p>\n<p>Moonlight fills and swills around<br \/>\nmy early morning head like sea-water.<\/p>\n<p>It &#8211; the full moon of Leo &#8211; bathes<br \/>\nthe abandoned streets and squares of Bruges.<\/p>\n<p>It might paint white cows and horses<br \/>\nin fields of neighbouring villages.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the poet laureate of Damme<br \/>\nis turning in his sleep<\/p>\n<p>and a pair of tipsy Antwerpenaars<br \/>\nare lurching home from sleazy bars.<\/p>\n<p>With one more wheel before or behind,<br \/>\nthat moon would be a bicycle<\/p>\n<p>rolling nowhere across the black night sky,<br \/>\nwithout a rider or brakes.<\/p>\n<p>From left to right it goes, throws<br \/>\na bowl of mystery into my soul.<\/p>\n<p>Past the tallest branch, with a smile<br \/>\non its face, it heads off into space.<\/p>\n<p>It may be meditating in a way.<br \/>\nHas it got something to say?<\/p>\n<p>You can never be absolutely sure<br \/>\nwhat the full moon has in store.<\/p>\n<p>This magic moon has had me in its power<br \/>\nfor more than an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Am I a lunatic? I can&#8217;t take my eyes<br \/>\noff that circle of light.<\/p>\n<p>I lean back in my chair, gasping for air.<br \/>\nAn angel ruffles my hair.<\/p>\n<p>Lunar energy is free, and it has<br \/>\nthe effect of strong black tea.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, O moon, for the company<br \/>\nyou have kept me since half past three.<\/p>\n<p>My batteries are charged for the day ahead.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m glad I left my bed.<\/p>\n<p>The moon is balanced on the roof<br \/>\nof the house next door, about to sink.<\/p>\n<p>Watching it disappear, I ask whether<br \/>\nit&#8217;s necessary to think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MESMERIZED I was hoping to see an angel but all I can see is the moon. The perfectly round white [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.olioweb.me.uk\/marcus\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}