Everyday Canvas

That Clown in the Moon

Prompt: Poet Dylan Thomas sees a clown in the moon, and the clown says, “I think, that if I touched the earth, // It would crumble;”
What do you see when you look at the moon?

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Moon enchants me. So much so that, you’d think I were a werewolf, but I am not a werewolf. Probably the moon is the werewolf because it shapeshifts so often. Or if it's a clown, it is the kind of a clown who scares little children and even some of us adults.

Yet, when I look at the moon at its fullest, I see a twisted face, the face of someone who is out there to con you, and the moon is the perfect conman. Yes, unlike Dylan Thomas, I don’t see a clown, but a conman. Just ask the lovers who once promised love eternal under a full moon.

No wonder there are so many breakups. With promises made under the light of a conman as the moon, those lovers were gypped out of their eternal love and loyalty. The same conman-moon creates havoc with the tides, people’s heightened nerves, emotions, and other cycles, too many to list.

Still the moon fascinates me. Every time the full moon shows its face, I try to get an image of it with the camera, which hasn’t helped me financially. Since from a point-and-shoot camera, just to shoot the moon, I went to a semi-pro or rather a beginning pro camera, only to find out that to get a decent photo of the moon, I would need a $7000 lens attachment. There goes the dream, right? Nope, I am not giving it up. I’ll find a way around this…somehow.


Then…

In all fairness to the poet, here’s the entire poem. By the way, he wrote it when he was fourteen. That should say a lot about the talent of Dylan Thomas.

Clown in the Moon - by Dylan Thomas

My tears are like the quiet drift
Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.

And, here’s my half-wit, simple interpretation of it:

The poet’s clown must be a tender soul because his tears are gentle alluded in the first simile. The clown is crying for feeling lonely and he grieves for what can be forgotten as years go by. The life on earth is fleeting and should the moon touch it, there won’t be an earth, for there will be a collision, and the life on earth will be a dream. This may mean the clown (or the poet himself) is unable to touch what he sees as beautiful and fears that it will all be like a dream. Touching the earth may also mean facing reality, but I am sure one can give many meanings to this poem, as is usually the way, whether the poet meant all those meanings or not.