If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Next Read-Around is 4/10/25 at 5:00 PM PST

How It Works:

  1. Read the poem 

  2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

  3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

  4. Use the selection of prompts below

  5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

  6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

My Thoughts

The different meanings of a word can take us in very different directions. For example, the word admit can mean to let something in or to confess or declare something. Danielle Ledinsky's translation of the Hafiz poem, With That Moon Language, opens with the word admit, which sets the stage for those two meanings to color what follows in the poem. The first and most obvious meaning is to admit that we have a core need to feel loved. Love is the driving force behind everything we do to gain approval or to please others. The feeling of being loved gives us wings and also grounds us. It settles, at least temporarily, our seeking urge. And it is humbling to think we go around with a cartoon bubble above our head that says “love me.” But Hafiz uses "moon language” to flip the equation. The moon, with all its mysterious allure and tidal strength, represent a love language that goes beyond words, that both admits love in and shines love out. How would it change you and the world if you lived with moonshine eyes quielty confessing love to those you meet?

With That Moon Language


Admit something:

Everyone, you see, you say to them, "love me."
Of course you do not do this out loud; otherwise,
   someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us
   to connect.

Why not become the one who lives with a full moon
  in each eye that is always saying
with that sweet moon language
what every other eye in this world is dying to hear?


Hafiz
Translated by Daniel Ledinsky
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/hafez

Prompt Ideas

  1. Journal or write a poem about “this great pull in us to connect.”

  2. Do you believe we are all silently saying, “love me,” to each other as Hafez declares? If so, in what way does the silent need manifest? If not, what else might be in the subtext of our interactions?

  3. Many people do have difficulty saying “I love you” to others. What makes this so risky? Whether or not this applies to you, journal or write a poem about the challenge of vulnerability.

  4. Use Hafiz’s line, the great pull to connect, as your prompt and compose from there.

  5. Journal or write a poem about living with a full moon in each eye. How do your full moon eyes see the world?

  6. Journal or write a poem in “that sweet moon language.” What would you say about love, live, the world, etc. from that language? How does moon langage describe a table lamp, a recliner chair, clouds, the sound of a passing train and other everyday objects and experiences?

  7. Hafiz ends the poem with the sensory synesthesia of what the eye hears. Journal or write what your eyes “hear” or what your ears “feel” or what your body “sees.”

  8. As usual, write about anything else in the poem or in life that inspires you.