Les Murray

The Moon Man

The Moon Man - meaning Summary

Birth and Luminous Origin

The poem recounts a nocturnal drive when the moon is imagined as a person: the "Moon man," a primal, fully formed birth who tends his mother and sheds light. This mythic image reframes the moon as the origin of human brilliance and a force whose very existence implied a cosmic labour that precluded small births on Earth. It blends domestic tenderness with a speculative cosmogony.

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Shadowy kangaroos moved off as we drove into the top paddock coming home from a wedding under a midnightish curd sky then his full face cleared: Moon man, the first birth ever who still massages his mother and sends her light, for his having been born fully grown. His brilliance is in our blood. Had Earth fully healed from that labour no small births could have happened.

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