Are People More Creative During a Full Moon?

CLEARWATER, Fla., April 23, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- One doesn't have to be a poet to appreciate a full moon as something special. After all, full moons are associated with everything from influencing ocean tides and romance to more fanciful imaginings such as werewolves and the increased likelihood of observing crazy behavior.

For Lonni Whitchurch, a former high school English teacher from Bemidji, Minnesota, who has lived in Florida for 34 years, the next full moon is a perfect time for a book launch and to talk about ways the moon has influenced poets and creativity. (The Old Farmer's Almanac calls a full moon in April a Pink Moon. It's named after the phlox, a pink flower that blooms this month.)

In Send the Moon, the moon in its various cycles plays an important role in many of her poems. She describes how full tropical moons are "haze and startle at once" while in the Midwest, at Christmas, "tinsel swings in the curve of a crescent moon."

Whitchurch observes, "I'm a moon child whose astrological sign is Cancer. Some astrologers describe moon children as sensitive, emotional and highly imaginative and I'd like to believe I share those attributes."

Whether conducted during a full moon or not, an interview with Whitchurch could boost the creativity of those who experience it.

She can talk about:

• From Shakespeare to Emily Dickinson: famous bards who waxed poetic about the moon
• Her mentors e. e. cummings, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton
• Growing up in a Minnesota town of 800 with a mom who wrote poems for the church bulletin
• What she keeps by the bed and why
• The poem she wrote on a dare
• Why being married to a poet is like sleeping with a firefly

Here is an excerpt from the poem "Inheritance" inspired by memories of a lost love:

You have ceased to be a person of interest.
Your only art is that of ingratiation.
I, on the other hand,
have the sun and moon at my disposal
and the knack for keeping them
in solitary orbit.

Praise for Send the Moon

"There is so much here: the grief of loss, but also of enduring tenderness, and the many-headed thing that desire is. I marvel at the imagination and resonance of these poems." — Tyler Meier, executive director, University of Arizona Poetry Center

"Lonni is a skillful and sensitive poet. Her poems are soul-baring, intricate and brilliant. Lonni's work is graceful, yet powerful, as if it is 'lace made of iron.'" — Dr. William Elliot, professor of creative writing and English Department chairman, Bemidji State University

"This collection of poems pricks the heart of anyone who has loved or lost. The day-to-day — or moon-to-moon — moments are entwined with memories mined to create images that resonate." — Nancy K. Crevier, editor, The Newtown Bee, Newtown, Connecticut

About the author

Lonni Whitchurch is an accomplished poet known for her vivid imagery and captured emotion. Raised in Minnesota, she graduated from Bemidji State University and taught high school English and creative writing there for seven years, during which time several of her students won statewide poetry contests. Her poetry manuscript started as a thesis for her master's degree and the poems were written over a span of 30-plus years. After moving to Florida in 1987, she created the concept for a chain of cafes based on Minnesota Wild Rice called Lonni's Sandwiches, Etc., which she owned for 21 years. Whitchurch lives in Clearwater with her husband, Ron.

Contact: Lonni Whitchurch, (727) 571-1232; [email protected]; loonlakepress.com/send-the-moon

SOURCE Lonni Whitchurch