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The company name, Leaping Catch, was inspired by a line in the poem "Moon Folly" by Fannie Stearns Davis, one of her "Songs of Conn the Fool." The poem was published in 1913, well before the first missions to the Moon. Nevertheless, the Moon imagery in the poem brings to mind the excitement of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. The poem evokes images of those visionaries who, despite the enormous challenges, boldly endeavored to land men on the Moon and return them safely to the Earth. In essence, those "lunatics" took a whole Nation, indeed the whole world, with them on their "foolish" journey. We each now have "Moons to our heart's desire," a fuller understanding of solar system formation and humanity's origins as well as the benefits of ubiquitous and indispensible technologies that sprouted from the lunar exploration missions, "the subtle swift seeds of the Moon."

More broadly interpreted, the poem is about being confronted by a wondrous mystery of nature or a technological challenge that sets the brain abuzz and propels you on a journey of discovery.


The poem is presented below as a slideshow as well as in standalone form.



Slideshow:


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Standalone:



Moon Folly (A Song of Conn the Fool)
by Fannie Stearns Davis

I will go up the mountain after the Moon:
She is caught in a dead fir-tree.
Like a great pale apple of silver and pearl,
Like a great pale apple is she.

I will leap and will catch her with quick cold hands
And carry her home in my sack.
I will set her down safe on the oaken bench
That stands at the chimney-back.

And then I will sit by the fire all night,
And sit by the fire all day.
I will gnaw at the Moon to my heart's delight
Till I gnaw her slowly away.

And while I grow mad with the Moon's cold taste
The World will beat at my door,
Crying "Come out!" and crying "Make haste,
And give us the Moon once more!"

But I shall not answer them ever at all.
I shall laugh, as I count and hide
The great black beautiful Seeds of the Moon
In a flower-pot deep and wide.

Then I shall lie down and go fast asleep,
Drunken with flame and aswoon.
But the seeds will sprout and the seeds will leap,
The subtle swift seeds of the Moon.

And some day, all of the World that cries
And beats at my door shall see
A thousand moon-leaves spring from my thatch
On a wonderful white Moon-tree!

Then each shall have Moons to his heart's desire:
Apples of silver and pearl;
Apples of orange and copper fire
Setting his five wits aswirl!

And then they will thank me, who mock me now,
"Wanting the Moon is he," -
Oh, I'm off to the mountain after the Moon,
Ere she falls from the dead fir-tree!

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