Poems for Your Day

This post originally appeared on Incurably Human, which has since merged with 100 Poems to become Wild Ground.

I’m not big on New Years resolutions, but on January 1, I dubbed 2023 “The Year of Shitty Poetry” and decided to write a poem every day. I haven’t actually managed this, but I have written 80 or so poems this year, which is about 79 poems more than in any preceding year. Today, I offer up a few recent ones. I hope you enjoy them!

Barefoot

How would it be—
just for this season—
to slip off your shoes and
live at a barefoot pace?
Slowed by the pleasure,
slowed by the pain
of feeling
everything.
Stems.
Twigs.
Tiny leaves, as soft as silk.
Bigger leaves, that crunch when you step.
Rocks.
Moss.
Mud.
The hard pack of dirt and
always, the earth,
rising up through your soles,
rising up through your soul.
Where is it
that you’re rushing
to go?
What is it
that you’re rushing
from?

The Truest Thing

The truest thing is this:

Perhaps you rushed past it?
Skipped the space,
Skittered to stanza?
As if truth could be scratched
with a pencil or held
in a thought.
As if truth could live anywhere
other than

between. 

Sticks

Some days,
I hold a long stick and wave it,
irritably clearing the air
of all the things that might
touch me, might grab and cling,
might hang from my limbs as if
I'm a tree, as if
I'm the tall grass. 
But today,
I am stickless. 
The air stirs
in my open palms and
webs waft about my legs. 
They stick to my skin
as if I am grass.
As if I'm a tree.
As if
I'm woven in.  

P.S. If you are a poet or lover of poetry, I’d love to learn from you! What are your favorite resources? Workshops? Poets? Books? Let me know in the comments or reply to this email.