This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2012. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editors in 2012 were Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh.Editors’ comment:Otherworldly and yet familiar; here are the ‘strings of beads in their green bowl’ and the ‘paper-crowded’ desk, illuminated by the ambiguously ‘cool gaze’ of the moon. And then, in the penultimate stanza, the narrator has ‘had enough’. She has learned the hard way, and she speaks openly and with strength.Author’s note:My poem ‘Moon’ was written, as it says, in August. I always look out for the stars in August because that is when they return after their summer absence. On this occasion it was a big Lammas moon, and its light haunted my garret room.