Tonight features the biggest, brightest full moon of the year. It’s called the “Wolf Moon”, and it was so bright I could actually read the temperature on the pool thermometer at midnight. Not surprising - tonight’s moon is 17% larger than normal and 31% brighter than normal, given the moon’s unusually-close proximity to planet earth.

Tracey interned at a number of hospitals during college and tells me it’s absolutely true that hospital ERs dread full moons like this because all sorts of wacky stuff happens - “la bella luna” brings out the craziness in people.

It’s truly beautiful out here tonight - the palm branches are glistening in the lunar glow, and all is calm. Everything seems so peaceful, I can see how a night like this would stir a poet’s heart:

“Wolf Moon”

Wolf Moon, is that you
howling through the courtyard,
banging at our windows,
stripping shingles from the roof,
demanding to be let in? You,

hungry, in your winter coat,
fur tipped with frost and snow?
I hear you prowling, your breath
puffs coldness under the door.
Wolf Moon, I cannot see you,

but I know you’re there.

OK, so it’s not a “moon” poem, per se, but I did like the imagery.

—-

Pool temp: 51 degrees