I began a ritual so to speak of writing in a journal on every full moon and new moon. The poems were written on each moon from the year of 2024. All the images included were taken by me near the date that the entry was written.
NEW MOON CAPRICORN
JAN 11 - 3:57 AM
Slept the whole night by a fire
That couldn’t keep me warm.
To find freedom
I dug up roots
and left,
circled back
tried to circumvent
intuition,
started again,
arrived in the exact same place
I left.
FULL MOON IN LEO
JAN 25TH - 9:54 AM
I want love
In words chosen carefully,
in choices
in time,
in laughter
in inside jokes
in fingertips
in the sound of a voice
That makes my
nervous system,
feel safe.
NEW MOON AQUARIUS
FEB. 9TH - 2:59 PM
You left me on a new moon.
love of my life,
12 years of joy and struggle together,
from city to city
small apartment to big ocean
and then small front yard.
Our last day together,
you got up to greet me
even though
You could barely walk,
everything hurt.
still
you came to meet me
at the door
What comes next
will be your greatest adventure yet,
traveling the stars.
Please,
come to meet me,
when its my time to walk through
the door.
FULL MOON IN VIRGO
FEB.24 4:30 AM
Voices from the stars
travel with cosmic choruses
transposed with love
so quietly you can barely hear
but you can feel the vibrations.
puppy kisses on faces
dogs know:
life is to be tasted.
I leave words on pages in the early morning
trying to leave something true, in my traces.
whatever words remain,
play them in whatever key you like
just add your beat, to the song.
NEW MOON IN PISCES
MAR. 10, 1:00 AM
All things are full of labour,
you cannot utter it:
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
Ecclesiastes 1:8
My hands disappear
on the landscape of skin
I can’t tell the border
any more.
between myself and
All the particles that make me
rearrange to fit.
I dissolve into a puddle
I return in the morning
a puddle.
Skin & bones
mouth & eyes
never completely
satisfied.
FULL MOON IN LIBRA
MAR. 25, 12:00 AM
Howling,
night sweats,
crying,
I moaned
into the darkness.
At the exact time of your birth
stars made
a road map
of your soul
Trace your clavicle with fingertips,
find Constellations
written in freckles
and scars.
NEW MOON IN ARIES
APRIL 8, 11:21 AM - TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE
An eclipse that won’t be seen
on this soil again
until 2044.
Clouds in Seattle,
sky obscured.
voice over a phone
brings calm
to calamity
memory of standing
on a mountain
peering through black glass
to see
The sun and moon embrace
for a brief moment.
then continue on
their own orbits
Destined
to keep meeting,
in every time line.
FULL MOON IN SCORPIO
APRIL 23, 4:49 PM
Place hands on ribs;
breathe.
Pain coalesces
with pleasure.
two opposites
who often meet.
I heard solitude
can heal you
if you don’t avoid
pain.
Without both
every day would be
completely the same.
Sun rises every morning
your hands slowly age
on the other side
of the window pane
NEW MOON IN TAURUS
MAY 7, 8:22 PM - Two Queens
Nothing is safe
from the rust of time
dance
while you can
Sing
at the top of your lungs,
anyway.
There is much to fear
in this world
remember us singing
when you take your journey to the next
when its time to dance with death
committed, for each other,
we are seeds in the rubble.
FULL MOON IN SAGITTARIUS
MAY 23, 4:49 PM
The synapses of my brain
misfire.
mental weather
cerebrum storms
with a chance of
emotional rain.
Windy memories I can’t recall
what I did in the past
could be 10 minutes or
10 years ago,
I'll forget them both the same.
Mental meteorology,
seizure interrupts,
sea levels rise,
aura borealis
voices wish me
Happy birthday
we continue
celebrating
time.
NEW MOON IN GEMINI
JUNE 6, 5:38 AM
Men perform
feats of strength for show
a push up contest
for everyone watching,
since the beginning of time.
Stone women
carved by mens’ hands
the tallest skyscraper,
as statue from France,
we live under
the bravado of men.
Soft flowers come from the dirt,
offer fruit when watered
grew thorns for protection.
when crushed
leave fragrant medicines
you can inhale
If you’re what’s left.
Fossil records for the next consciousness.
you tell me,
which requires more strength?
FULL MOON CAPRICORN
JUNE 21, 6:08 PM
Women sing songs, that chose them, late into the night.
they are held
in the womb of the earth,
their voices break the silence
with songs crawl out of their throats
until they are joined by
the birds’ morning songs.
bare bodies
submerged in cold
after sweating
with fire & rocks
The moonlight
reflects off of the river
generations of women
sang here before
leaving their prayers
in the water.
NEW MOON IN CANCER
JULY 5, 3:57 PM
Seizure
memories gone
fresh cuts
I can’t explain
on my tongue
in their place
Two months
raptured
from my strange
brain waves.
Instant erase.
Whose been living
in my body while I was away?
new bruises from fingerprints,
I can’t remember,
when I wake.
FULL MOON CAPRICORN
JULY 21, 3:17 AM
What are the memories you can never forget?
which ones made deep groves into your brain?
memories you can’t lose to seizures, Alzheimer’s
or old age.
Is it the the life you carved out
or the trauma that carved you?
I had dreams of police
pushing towards crowds
in my sleep
What memories
will always remain?
May whatever comes,
move freely
may my spirit stay.
NEW MOON IN LEO
AUGUST 4 4:13 AM
When the night is as dark as soil,
plant your feet.
Place hope in the forces you can’t see
life comes from the dirt
we are all moved by gravity
In patterns recorded in
our blood memory.
write out new songs
no one else will hear
without you
scratching them
out of your chest
as an offering.
FULL MOON IN AQUARIUS
AUGUST 19, 11:26 AM - This image is the only one not made by me. This was a photo of me sleeping by EagleSon.
Clouds cover the sky
with thunder and rain.
I talked over the blue moon
told her my secret:
that I can’t remember anything
except the things I want to forget.
during EMDR tapping,
my therapist says
it isn’t
my fault,
I still feel primal rage.
I meditate
on your funeral afterwards;
have the best sleep I’ve had
in days.
New Moon in Virgo
September 2 6:55 PM
Buried secrets
revealed in blood memory
Years later
resurface in the next generation.
My ancestors lives reminds me
everybody dies,
What our breathe is used for
during our time
is what survives.
Full Moon in Pisces
September 17, 7:43 PM
Words written down on paper before my birth
show up on my phone.
connect the threads
Death Certificate: HIV/AIDS
News Headline reads:
Warden transferred to women’s prison
Outside of Schenectady.
My mother says he was her favorite uncle
he was handsome, charming and smart.
Uncle died at 49.
my Grandfather
still alive.
Words written down
on paper before my birth
Show up on my phone
connect threads
Known and unknown .
NEW MOON IN LIBRA
OCTOBER 2 11:49 AM
The wold is unraveling,
children’s bodies are piling up
in Palestine
packaged for the nightly news
like grocery store meat
babies are feeding the war machines.
FULL MOON IN ARIES
OCTOBER 17, 4:26 AM
Love can leave in an Instant
You remain but everything has changed
a familiar street
now haunted
slowly avoided
for new places.
NEW MOON IN SCORPIO
NOVEMBER 1, 5:47 AM
The same old patterns
unearthed by moonlight
Fuck, flee or Fight.
I spent to much time motionless
They call that freeze.
emotions pool at the source
leaking into every opening
or closing
fawn-
praise for who looks into my eyes
By mornings light
I hold my breath
hold off anger,
hold off conflict,
Conflict or confidence?
I quiet myself,
lay very still
maybe the time will pass without me noticing.
FULL MOON IN TAURUS
NOVEMBER 15, 1:28 PM
Libido Sciendi:
learning through the tips of your fingers.
press palm to throat
place collar bones between both lips.
Star matter gathers at the ends of your hair.
voices crescendo into a
universal chorus of screaming
Waves take you,
- leave your mind.
NEW MOON
SAGITTARIUS
NOVEMBER 30, 10:21 PM
Time moves backward and forward
with music.
Neurons connect
flashes of memory
appear in a pair of old boots
I bought in Chicago
to run away in.
I blink to come back.
Deep breaths
are not something that you earn.
they are a gift.
I stop the song,
change my shoes.
Full Moon in Gemini
December 15th 1:02 AM
I spent the day in silence
except to ask a robot
to play my favorite songs
The horizon seems dull
when your eyes are narrowed
to only the future
What good is predicting the future
If you have no present awareness.
NEW MOON
CAPRICORN
DECEMBER 30, 2:27 PM
What has been before leaves residue on your fingers and under your nails.
You sometimes leave those fingerprints on piano keys, filing the halls that once barked commands, with beautiful frequencies.
your hands bring the music into physicality
the same 12 notes known throughout history
contain answers in languages your body keeps.
Songs for the spirits who have been here,
Recorded in another octave for the ones ahead.
Dear Reader,
In 2021, I published all my journal entries from my moon poems journal. This year, for some wildly unknown reason, I felt compelled to gather this years poems into a published format again. That same week I posted about it, I was diagnosed with PMDD, my neighbor’s screaming ex-husband slashed her tires and clipped her valve stems, and the inauguration happened. The last thing I felt like doing was finishing what I had started the week before. But, the moon led me forward anyway.
Being afraid of vulnerability and trying to control who could see these poems wasn’t helping anyone, least of all me. So I decided to put them on my website as an offering. I published them here on the New Moon for the Lunar New year.
I’m told this is the year of the snake, as the times change, I hope we’re renewed by what we gain when we shed what no longer serves us.
Thank you for following my life in these little squares on our phones and for reading these poems written under all these moons.
I also want to say thank you—to my parents and my sister, my Aries North Stars in this life. I would be lost without the three of you.
To my friends and loved ones who have shared meals, moments, photos, blankets, tears, and anger with me, I stand tall because you stand beside me.
To the people quoted in these poems, your words will stay with me forever, and I am endlessly grateful.
To my enemies, exes, and epilepsy: I hope you enjoy watching me get up again after you.
IN STARDUST & SOLIDARITY -
Alicia Diamond