This is going to be a year absolutely packed with literature.
It’s going to be a year of taking risks with writing, including no longer dipping a toe into fantasy and fairy tales, but diving in, and also… taking my poetry writing seriously. I’m not fond of calling myself a writer, much less a poet… somehow the idea of A Poet seems much more deep and knowledgeable and serious than my iamb-counting, form-conforming, rule-bound, doggerel scribbling self. How do people become poets, anyway? In the same way that we become writers – by doing the thing, I’m told. So, I will be doing the thing, taking serious study with a textbook and instructors and all, and with scheduled practice time.
It’s… a little terrifying, honestly. But, it’s also very hopeful and anticipatory – much like the 365 neat, blank squares marching importantly through our calendars. So many things cluster close to our imaginations, tugging on our fine hairs, breathing into our ears, “Maybe this year! Maybe this year!”
Well? Maybe it is all going to happen this year. But, how will we find out if we don’t start?
Poetry Friday is hosted by Ruth, all the way from Haiti, at There Is No Such Thing As A God-Forsaken Town. Have a lovely, restful weekend – because Monday’s the day we jump in and make it all happen!
You have become a poet, Tanita, with all its reflective thinking. Yes to opening your heart and inviting the universe into your thoughts. Happy New Year.
@cvarsalona: Thank you – I’m filled with hesitant trepidation and an eagerness to get started. Happy 2021 to you – and here’s to more of your poetry.
Oh, I love this. We HAVE to deceive ourselves, or at least act AS IF the deaths and failures won’t happen…that if we give it our all and sing our songs, this will be the time a miracle happens! Hooray to chasing dreams. Happy New Year, Tanita! PS You ARE a poet. No sense trying to shrug off the cloak of poetry. You wear it too well:>)
@laurasalas: The “quick! quick! of our oft-deceived hearts feels so familiar – it’s like jumping into lake water you know is going to be cold – just… 1-2-3-GO… All the while pretending it’s going to be awesome – knowing that in the end it will be – otherwise you’d never get in. I think that’s how we all have to approach this new year, and the idea of new work. Looking forward to more poetry with you!
Tanita – it took me a long. long, time to comfortably call myself “a writer” when I’ve been doing it and loving it all my life. Still struggling with “poet” although I am writing (trying to write!) lots more of it. Great questioning in this regard: why is it so hard to own? I happen to be a lifelong Lewis fan and adore this poem – it is PERFECT for the new year! Let’s do this thing 🙂
@Fran Haley: It’s ridiculous that it takes us so long – how many other people agreeing does it take for us to believe ourselves!? I love Lewis’ poetry – he wrote most of it prior to becoming a novelist, and it’s always so different from his prose – and yet with a core of the same. Here’s to knowing who we are, in poetry or in prose. ☺
I’ve loved your poems & say to myself, you are a poet, Tanita! Hope that counts! : ) The poem is quite filled with hope, ready to seal the promise by reading it aloud. “Quick, quick, quick, quick” turn the page past this most-horrendous year that has passed. Happy 2021!
@lindabaie: I love that sense of “HURRY – do it fast, and we’ll still believe!” That’s why we simply must leap into this new year! Happy 2021 to you.
Yes to poetry writing, I’m always fitting it in in between teaching, or late at night. Sounds like some good plans Tanita! Thanks for the C.S. Lewis poem, here’s hoping that little bird is right about our forthcoming summer… Happy New Year!
@Michelle Kogan: Poetry’s little lift can fit in anywhere – I’m always so impressed by how you incorporate it into your art as well. Happy 2021!