POEM #1 FOR POEM A DAY FOR 2020

I figured this poem was a good one to begin wtih!

These poems I am posting are from many times, years, circumstances. This one is more recent as I remembered back to a lovely French man I was once madly in love with :)  Dated March 2019

It is amazing how many things can get in the way of posting these poems! It is only the third day and I almost didn't get it done. Thank goodness I have decided to do this daily - it is teaching me discipline and how to make poetry (and me!) a priority!!

This poem is from January 2019 - enjoy!

I have been writing poems in the back of my journals for a number of years and this process of posting a poem a day is great motivation to look back through them all. It is like time travel. Today I explored 1999 and was interested to discover that creativity felt the same to me back then as it does now! 

Also please know that I am trying to find a better way to post these poems without them being blurry. The trouble is that I have been creating custom borders to go with the 7 days of the week (one each color of the rainbow) and so far the only way to capture the image and the poem is a screen shot. 

In some ways this poem is self explanatory. It is a reminder to me not to go down the road of self abandonment. I discovered along the way that being praised or liked can have more disastrous consequences for me than being disliked  - only because it can be so tempting to slide away from being authentic before I even realize. As I share my writing I appreciate the positive feedback so much! People have been wonderful. And...I need to remember not to get caught up in the "likes" I receive :)

It is interesting to notice how many of the poems I have are about relationship - falling in love, wanting to fall in love, falling out of love, disillusionment  with relationships. It's a common theme. Here is one from 2007 that is on the hopeful end of the spectrum. 

This poem, from January 2019, came from reflecting upon how much "easier" it seems to be defensive than open and loving. It also includes just a bit of humor to remind me that all does not have to be deadly serious in love and war. 

And hey, I have made it a whole week posting a poem a day! Wahoo! Only 51 weeks to go. 

Insomnia anyone?  Originally composed in March of 2018 as the sky was getting light just before my alarm went off. Been there many times, probably will be again :)

Well I had to laugh when I read this poem as I sifted  through some poetry from 2012. Today I can celebrate with the bird, teapot and flower that I am out of the seed, shell, kiln and being shiny.  At least to a greater degree! Wahoo!

I discovered this poem in my 2009 collection and, while I can't remember exactly what inspired it, I enjoyed the sensation that it woke up in me. I hope you enjoy it too. 

In contrast to the serenity of yesterday's poem, here is another variation on the  experience of being human. This was in response to a startling red hot moment I felt at some point in the fall of 2019. As part of the poem, I fooled around with making it look like a flame to match the heat of the anger. 

This process of sifting through all the poems I have written over the years is so interesting. This poem must have been one of my very first from way back in the mid 1990's - I hadn't even thought to start writing the dates on them yet. Even though I hadn't read this poem in more than two decades the punchline still really hit me. Cool. 

Well, I had one of those unexpected moments of grief today for a dear friend who had passed away last year. I wept and as the tears fell, I was aware of how grateful I am to have known her. It put me in mind of this poem that I wrote last June. 

This poem is from March 2019 and is a testimony to the immense value in confusion and my appreciation of the  "wait a minute"! Confusion is never fun but I have learned it can lead me somewhere.

This poem is from 1999 and struck me as different than how I normally write a poem. I like the beauty of the images. And I notice that I want to lean into that inner magic...

Relationship is ever the topic for poetry. This poem from June 2015 explores a state of disillusionment arrived at over a long period of time. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt! 

Having a look for poems today, I happened upon the year 2000, in which my daughter was born and transformed my life forever. Being a mother has been very joyful...and...there have been some difficult moments when sleep deprivation would turn me into a psycho! Cheers to all you new parents out there!

Yesterday's poem about sleep, or rather not sleeping, put me in mind of a more recent experience of insomnia. This poem came about a few weeks ago, shortly after I started this process of posting poetry! 

Today is a two-for-one poem day as there was room for two on the page. The first poem is from last February as I reflected back on a particularly difficult chunk of time in my life (the past several years). The second "bonus" poem is a more recent version of the serenity prayer that popped into my head as I was considering maybe possibly one day dating! Lol :)

Here is  poem in a more romantic vein. There are a few of these kicking around. Not sure how I feel about them. 

Also I discovered today that I can only have 19 poems posted at a time so gradually I will have to replace the earlier postings with the most current poems.