third night of rain
clouds hide waxing moon--
keeping his secret
Have you seen the almost full moon tonight? It looks immense in the winter sky. The moon was and is a very common topic for Japanese haiku. Many Japanese poets write about moon viewing, an activity that the Japanese with their great love of nature, probably embrace more fully than any other culture in the world.
One of my favorite Arctic memories was hiking along Kivalina's sand spit directly toward the full moon. At that latitude the moon seemed much bigger than here and it reflecting so brightly onto the snow that it didn't seem as if it were really night at all, but some other state between day and night. I had to force myself to turn around and go back, but that dang moon was incredibly magnetic.
The Farmers' Almanac nicknames December's moon as "Full Long Nights Moon" or "Full Cold Moon." Take advantage of these long nights to do some moon viewing of your own.
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