Tuesday, December 31, 2013

old year, new year, and every last thing


Old year out, new year in.

And eventually you come to understand that the essential things resolve and realize themselves in their own sweet time. Sometimes lickety-split catching us off guard, sometimes so long we lose hope, yet always right on time. Hardly ever - neatly, conveniently - between the parentheses of January 1st and December 31st.

No public resoluting this year

only amorphous ideas, things I see - faintly - but only if I squint

things written in sepia copperplate
on the soft yellowed paper of my heart

things illuminated by the light of my own lodestar.

but mostly this:
staying open, open to it all
every. last. thing.

*

"I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; 
and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end".
(Laurie in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women)

Happy New Year!

*

Inspiring me:

The End of This Year (a poem) by Jack Ridl
The Year in Review The Year Ahead (Heather King)
The Gift You Give Yourself (Sage Cohen)
Prison Break (Emma Tree)
Greetings from New York (Mary Fons)
Stay Open (Mrs. Mediocrity)
Dreaming of My Next Novel (Ann Hood)
Paul Klee (Lizzy House)