It's January 2nd, do you know where your poems are?

While cleaning my desk yesterday I found poems. Yes, poems I had started then got behind on, then they slipped out of my mind and I went on to something else. I also found a folder with poems and notes on revising them from my workshop group.

It's both annoying and exciting to find these new/old poems. Part of me thinks, Be a little more organized, will ya? The other part says, Yeah! A poem to revise!

I have started keeping a small notebook on my desk with the titles of the poems I am working on. This year it's the Women Artists Datebook 2009 published by Syracuse Cultural Workers and what I like about this is that I can keep track of dates when poems were born.

In my computer, I keep two folders-- In Process (where I save poems I just wrote or am revising or that I feel just aren't good enough yet) and Completed Poems (which is as you guessed, poems that are finished and ready to send out to the world).

Normally, on a writing day I open my In Process folder and sort it by date. I choose maybe 5-7 poems to open into new documents at once. I flip through these poems until I find something that interests me then begin revising. When I get tired or stuck on that poem, I flip to another. Some have asked how I can concentrate on more than one poem at once and for me, what this does is take the importance off of each of the poems. There is nothing that can stop me more than having only one poem to work on at a time. It makes that poem see too important (pronounced "im-POOOOR-tant" - with an accent).

If I haven't written in awhile and try to write a new poem, it may feel hard. However, if I allow myself to write the bad stuff along with the good, writing becomes easier because I am allowing myself to play without judgment or by putting too much importance on a piece. I do write a lot, but the majority of my "poems" never go on to become poems. They spend their life in the In Process file hoping for a good revision. And if they don't get one, they are happy there as there's a lot of first drafts with good personalities to keep them entertained.

So while I tend not to make the resolution "I will not lose poems" because honestly, I know a poem is never lost, this year, I'm interested in documenting the beginnings of poems and essays in my desk calendar. And still keeping that little index card on my desk with the titles of poems I'm working on. Sometimes I think I'm just having my own love affair/environment disaster with paper as it seems to always be surrounding me. (Side note: once in my twenties I went to a psychic who said, "I'm not sure what you will be doing in your thirties, but I see you completely surrounded by paper." ) This could be any day of my life in my 30's!

Anyway, I have mentioned my poetry process before, but someone asked, so there you go. Plus the new detail of the desk calendar, I'll tell you how this works as well as I'll end this post with a writing exercise--

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Writing Exercise--

New Year's Poem

***Make a list of at least 10 specific items or images that you saw, touched, tasted, or heard on Dec 31st or January 1st. Now write down 4 things that you did either on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

Now write a poem that includes two of the things you did on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day as well as 6 of the items/images from your list.


Happy 2009!

New Year's Day -2009

Music by Franz Schubert

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Happy first morning of 2009! 2009. Doesn't that seem odd to say? How did we almost slip into double-digits in the new millennium? 09. We're coming to the end of our first decade and while there is a part of me that wants to say what a mess we've made of things, there's another part that thinks, Hold on - things will get better.

So far in my hour of being awake this 2009, I haven't broken any resolutions. Not bad. Once I broke a resolution 2 minutes after midnight. Oops. I'm less critical of myself though than I was 10 years ago, a little more forgiving. But I do find I have pretty high standards, though I tend not to keep regret with me as I did when I was younger. It occurred to me after my daughter was born that every single decision I had ever made in my life was correct because it ultimately led to her birth and her coming into the world. Now whenever I feel regretful, I look around me and if my family is safe, then I think, So far so good.

I wanted to post a new year's photo today, but I didn't have any. I found this image I kept of Franz Shubert's "Cats" sheet music he created and thought this would be appropriate for today as I think the new year calls for creating new work and different work. Not just thinking out of the box, but living out of the box and seeing what happens.

When Barack Obama beat John McCain I saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said, "Hope kicked fear's ass" and I thought that finally as a country, we get it. Fear controls. Hope moves us forward. I'm not sure what 2009-2013 holds, but I'm not afraid of it. What I hope it holds? More peace. More compassion. More tolerance. More understanding. More acceptance. More joy. More love. More trust. More faith. More art. More poems. More gratitude. More hope.

If there is one thing I could delete from the world's thoughts it would be less judgment towards others and replace that with compassion. It's something I try to work on. It's hard, it's easier to call someone a jerk for cutting me off in traffic, than to wonder if maybe he's feeling stressed because he needs to be somewhere or to consider his circumstances.

I can't promise you or me anything more than I'll try my best this year and I'll see what happens. I know there will be more poems and words around my desk. I can't promise my desk will be clean, but it will loved. I know there will be more music in my life and while I can't promise it will be always be in tune, it will be there. I hope the world will be more peaceful and that the words of John & Yoko will circle--the war is over, if you want it--because most of us are here just trying our best.

So with this first post of the new year, of 2009, I wish you hope and music, poetry and peace. I hope there is time for you every day to sit back and enjoy what's around you without feeling you need to be some place else as well as good friends, a warm room, and always enough of what you need. Cheers!

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(And hopefully you're reading this without a raging hangover, but if you are to remember, this to shall pass...)