Author Notes: Sandra Lloyd
There is no man in the moon.Sandra Lloyd, recent Puritan author, discusses her poem “Inclined to Moon” from Issue XX: Winter 2013. Click on the link to read (and listen to!) the poem.“Inclined to Moon” is a literal and incidental take on the shocking effect of seeing the moon, very large at the horizon, early one morning. Although the moon did feel noteworthy, there have been countless poems written about our satellite planet. And so I was absolutely not going to write a moon poem—it seemed foolish to try.That said, it was a shared experience and I sensed a similar wordlessness in an eloquent friend. It was this ‘silencing’ phenomenon that stayed with me. Soon after, I heard poet John Terpstra mention this same lunar run-in, and together we wondered at how it felt as if we should say something, as if the moon was begging us to do so. However, rather than get all moony about the moon, I decided to write a poem about my reluctance, the human tendency to ‘scrapbook’ impressive or intoxicating moments, and the obvious inadequacy of language to characterize such memorable experiences.Sandra Lloyd received a Bachelor of Science degree from U of T, a Nursing Diploma from Humber College, and is currently pursuing a Masters in Creative Writing at U of T. Her prose and poetry have appeared in publications including The Antigonish Review, The Windsor Review, and Other Voices. She received a literary prize from MSVU in Halifax, served on the advisory board for McMaster University’s Main Street Anthology and is a member of the Hamilton Poetry Centre.