April's Full Seed Moon

When April's full moon comes calling and lighting up the night, there's the tang of fresh earth underfoot and greenly astringent sap flowing through every twig and branch, but the landscape hasn't begun its reckless prodigal flaring into color and fragrance and song. This part of the world awakens slowly, and in April we cavort like perfect fools on the cusp between winter and spring as we are waiting for the weather to warm up and the landscape to come to life.  In her resemblance to a great cosmic egg or seed, this month's full moon expresses the riotous greening to come and new life quickening in the earth far below her.

A puckish and unpredictable thing is life in the great round and what I like to call "the matter of moons". One goes out faithfully with tripod and camera month after month, and she is always hoping to witness to the moon on her special night, but can never really be sure of seeing her - especially in springtime when the lady is concealed by rain clouds for days at a time.  Last night, Spencer and I were fortunate, and although there was rain in our cards, the skies were clear for a brief interval.  Just past nine, Luna rose over the hills like a pearl, and we were both there to bear witness to her ascent. 

Around this time every year, I seem to find myself all wrapped up in vague longings that evade description, wandering for hours in the woods and along local waterways and reaching for something that can't be articulated in words or captured on a memory card. Some of my restlessness can be attributed to the fact that I have been here all winter while various family members and friends traveled to warmer climes, but the truth is that I too am longing to sprout leaves and burst into bloom. The moon in her radiant fullness quiets my nebulous springtime longings.  Sometimes old stones lull them too, as do little garden jungles of rainy leaves and flocks of Canada geese passing overhead on their way to the river. There's a gentle melancholy in such yearnings, and they become stronger and more compelling with every passing year.

We also know this restless yearning moon as the: Ashes Moon, Big Spring Moon, Broken Snowshoe Moon, Budding Trees Moon, Bullhead Moon, Cherry Blossom Moon, Daisy Moon, Moon, Egg Moon, Fish Moon, Flower Moon, Fourth Moon, Frog Moon, Glittering Snow on Lake Moon, Grass Moon, Gray Goose Moon, Great Sand Storm Moon, Green Grass Moon, Growing Moon, Half Spring Moon, Hare Moon, Ice Breaking in the River Moon, Leaf Split Moon, Loon Moon, Maple Sap Boiling Moon, Moon of Greening Grass, Moon of Red Grass Appearing, Moon of the Big Leaves, Moon of the Red Grass Appearing, Moon of Windbreak, Moon When Geese Return in Scattered Formation, Moon When Nothing Happens, Moon When the Geese Lay Eggs, Moon When They Set Indian Corn, Moon, Pink Moon, Planter's Moon, Planting Corn Moon, Planting Moon, Poinciana Moon, Red Grass Appearing Moon, Ring Finger Moon, Snowdrop Moon, Snowshoe Breaking Moon, Spring Moon, Sprouting Grass Moon, Strawberry Moon, Strong Moon, Sugar Moon

As names go, I am rather fond of "Cherry Blossom Moon" and "Sugar Moon".