Starting the Year Right

For the third year in a row, I've begun the year with poetry by participating in an annual Poetry Brunch hosted by one of the county's Poet Laureates. A gathering of dozens of poets and readers of poetry, the event includes a time for socializing, reflecting on the past year, looking forward into the new year, and reading poetry. What a lovely way to set the tone for 2016!

I chose to read Dorianne Laux's "Antilamentation" today rather than anything of my own. It's a poem about regretting nothing, and brings to mind the lines in "The Disiderata": And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

There is no doubt my ongoing MFA work will make poetry a greater part of my life 2016. And yet, I know that one day of focusing on poetry does not a practice make. Therefore, here's to re-committing, daily, to putting pen to page or fingers to keyboard and to finding my subject and building my body of work.