Checking In

The project continues...slower progress than I anticipated, but worth the effort. The ultimate goal is to have a collection of poetry to submit to publishers and competitions. This requires reading every poem I've written over the past 5 years, finding common themes, editing, choosing photos and assembling them into a collection, hoping all the while that once in the hands of publishers and judges, it won't end up at the bottom of a pile.

Not much time for writing anything new, but here's a great poem from Wendell Berry that spoke to me:

How To Be A Poet
(to remind myself)

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill - more of each
than you have - inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensional life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.