Month: February 2011

Man In The Moon – Draft 3

The latest version of my sonnet on the moon.  In my previous version I identified rhythmic problems to do with the shift from iambic pentameter to trochaic pentameter in the second quatrain.  It meant the loss of a syllable at the end of the iambic lines in order to keep the meter fluid – a compromise I was not willing to make.  At the same time, it was conceptually clunky, failing to segue adequately between quatrains and sextet.  This one is closer, still, to where I am heading with this:

Man In The Moon

The More Modern Man In The Moon
The More Modern Man In The Moon

“When witches long ago beheld the moon
they conjured up a man hunched with a pack.
Astronomers spied ‘seas’ that would maroon
A sailor in a tranquil well of black.
Later, truer lenses picked out craters
ringed by nightbound mountains. Violent meteor
storms had tattooed deep on Luna’s face a
shadow-man – an ink-blot human creature.”
A woman, thinking, as she travels, weaves
her moonbug’s track through lunar rocks and dust –
“Technology sustains life and relieves
our need for faith or guesswork – even trust…”
The Cosmos is a mirror to each mind:
Look long upon its glass: What will YOU find?


Copyright (c) 2011, Matthew Wingett

Man In The Moon – Draft 2

Well, that didn’t take long before I rewrote it.  Here we go again:


The Man In The Moon With Pack
The Man In The Moon Envisioned By the Ancients

Man In The Moon

“When priests in ancient times beheld the moon
they conjured up a man hunched with a pack.
Astronomers spied seas that would maroon
A sailor in a tranquil well of black.
Later, truer lenses picked out craters
ringed by nightbound mountains. Meteor storms
had violently incised on Luna’s face a
shadow-man – an ink-blot human form.”
A woman, peering through her visor, shrugs
away these thoughts. With slow-mo tread through rocks
and lunar dust she mounts her waiting moonbug –
driving on toward her metal box…
…She leaves behind a footprint as a sign:
“The Universe is shaped within a mind.”


Copyright (c) Matthew Wingett 2011

Man In The Moon – Draft 1

The Man in the Moon with his Dog, as European Legend has it!
The Man in the Moon with his Dog, as European Legend has it!

It is always a mistake to publish an idea when you are drunk. While I am not exactly drunk, I have had a few glasses of wine, and my judgement may be off.

However, I have got a good feeling about this, the latest of my “Cosmological Sonnets”. It is the first draft, and I will rework it shortly, but I thought: well, why not share it? I’m in that kind of mood. Keep watching. It will be reworked shortly!

As for when the moonshine wears off, and I see this in the cold light of a new day, well, that I will have to live with tomorrow.  But I hope you enjoy it, and that you can see what it is that I am groping towards.

Thank you for your patience!

(c) Poem copyright 2011, Matthew Wingett, all rights reserved.


Man in the Moon

“When priests in ancient times beheld this disc
they saw a man and faithful hound rove free
across its face. Later, astronomists
Baptised its sea of dust “Tranquillity”.

Through their lenses men spied nightbound craters
ringed by darkened mountains. A meteor storm
had etched that world and made from pools of shade, a
shadow-man: an ink-blot human form.”

The woman, peering through her visor, shrugs
off her thoughts, and slowmo treads the rocks
and lunar dust. She mounts her faithful moonbug
then drives off toward her pressured box…

…She leaves behind a footprint as a sign:
“Beware: The universe is humankind.”

The Great NLP Extravaganza!

The Great NLP Extravaganza on February 26 at the Ibis Hotel, London, is the perfect launch pad for those interested in finding out more about the fascinating applied study of human interaction, NLP.

  • NLP is strongly focused on how we use language – for example, how the asking of particular questions lead to very specific types of answer. Meaning that you can set the agenda to an interview or a discussion without expressly saying so.
  • NLP enables you to change the interactions that you are having with others, so that you can be aware of and guide other people’s emotions.
  • It enables you to get control of your own emotional state so that you are able to give the very best that you can in the most trying of circumstances.
  • It also trains you in the art of “reading” people more closely, so that you are able to draw more information from discussions and interviews than their words alone tell you
  • It teaches you how to build strong and positive relationships, and how to get yourself and your staff more positive, and with increased morale.
  • It teaches an attitude to life which enhances business and personal relationships and is the breeding ground of success.

NLP is used by such diverse figures as Oprah Winfrey, Paul McKenna and mentalist Derren Brown to enable them to be more clear and focussed at work and at home, and to allow them to achieve more.

The NLP Extravaganza will be a well-priced day that allow you to find out more about the skills on offer, and to take away practical tools that you can apply for yourself.  It will show you how to apply NLP to business, medicine, negotiation, public speaking, presentation skills and sport.

To find out more about the Great NLP Extravaganza, just click through on this link https://theukcompany.infusionsoft.com/go/nlaew/m068w/