Strawberry Moon

In Native American folklore, the full moons are given names.  The full moon in June is called Strawberry Moon, and it isn't hard to figure out why.  Of course, June is the month of the strawberry harvest!  I learned about these names about three decades ago when I discovered Mary Oliver's book of poetry called Twelve Moons.  I still love that collection and return to it often.

In the poem titled Strawberry Moon, Oliver tells the story of Elizabeth Fortune, who became pregnant by a young man with whom she was in love . . . and who was in love with her, or so she believed. 

My great aunt Elizabeth Fortune
stood under the honey locust trees,
the white moon over her and a young man near.
The blossoms fell down like white feathers,
the grass was warm as a bed, and the young man
full of promises, and the face of the moon
a white fire.

 As she is referred to as a "great-aunt" in the poem, one can assume this happened many, many years ago.  The poem reveals that the young man later came home with a bride.  After Elizabeth had the baby, it was taken from her, and she moved up to live in the attic, a "solution" to the unpleasantness of her sin.  And she stayed in the attic for 40 years.  The persona of the poem, a young girl, inquires as to what happened to the young man?  Well, he and his wife had three kids, and he worked in the boat yard.  While Elizabeth lived in the attic.

Oliver returns to the moon at the end of the poem:

And should anyone be surprised
if sometimes, when the white moon rises,
women want to lash out
with a cutting edge?

I love the use of color in the poem. White, the color of purity, virginity, cleanliness, is predominant.  But strawberry?  Oh, the red rage!

Anyway, tonight is a full moon.  It also happens to be Friday the 13th.  Everything I've read debunks all the superstition that the confluence of these two things means anything at all.  Having been born on the 13th, I rather like the number.  When I turned 26 (2 x 13) and when I turned 31 (13 backwards), my birthday was on a Friday.  Nothing bad happened and I am still here to tell you about it.  I feel pretty confident that tonight will be uneventful.

I just hope the skies clear so that I can go outside for a moondance later on.  I will love it!