Bob, thanks for your nice critique. The shawl is a reference to clouds or
mist that surround the moon. Just recently here the moon was covered with a
light mist but still quite bright. I could perhaps make that metaphor a
little clearer. I think I am just going to delete the lines about the coins
as I had already decided they were not going to do anything but "clutter" the
poem. I want to use this poem in my collection which is virtually finished.
The title of the book is "What the Moon Knows." I have a title poem already,
but this one seemed to me to fit, too. In an earlier collection, (and online
if I am not mistaken in an e-zine) there is a poem called "Harvest," a very
short one, that uses some of these images, but in a different way; thus, the
title here. It is always good to get your comments. Sometimes as often
happens with good criticism what I hear confirms what I already know, and
when that happens I feel the decision to clean up or omit certain lines like
the ones about the coins is the right decision, especially as I had been
wavering about it. Thanks for your help. Sue
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