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.
In case you missed the memo, my novel “All Is Well” is currently being serialized here on Substack. You can learn more and begin reading here!
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.
The Truest Thing is off the hook! Perfectly put.
I love your ode to wordlessness :) - and I love the idea of being woven into nature. Come to think of it, I've loved all "shitty poems" you've ever shared with me, one way or another. I also love my poem-a-day subscription from the American Academy of Poets (www.poets.org). It's such a fun surprise to see what sort of poem they've sent me (a hugely divergent range of poets both living and long gone).