Monday, January 01, 2007

New Years Resolutions

I could put them up - all my wishes to be thinner, fitter, more productive, stop playing solitaire, never google myself and then get depressed - but then I'd only have to do lots of later posts explaining why I haven't managed to keep up with all those hopeful plans I'm making today. So here instead is a poem by Jane Kenyon which perfectly sums up, to me, why this one day - of all days - seems to be so important.

Afternoon in the House
Jane Kenyon

It's quiet here. The cats
sprawl, each
in a favored place.
The geranium leans this way
to see if I'm writing about her:
head all petals, brown
stalks, and those green fans.
So you see,
I am writing about you.

I turn on the radio. Wrong.
Let's not have any noise
in this room, except
the sound of a voice reading a poem.
The cat's request
The Meadow Mouse, by Theodore Roethke.

The house settles down on its haunches
for a doze.
I know you are with me, plants,
and cats - and even so, I'm frightened,
sitting in the middle of perfect
possibility.

And Writing Prompt 1 for 2007 is:
Finding someone else's list of resolutions.

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