Photography

And here's just a quick entry to flaunt some more of Jack Stevens's photography. This is a wintery one I thought appropriate.

RIWC

Christmas

Seasonal salutations to everyone, even people who may not have even the slightest interest in poetry, but may have through some tremendous twist of fate somehow stumbled upon my blog. I hope you have all had a very merry holly jolly Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Kwanzaa. Or whatever it is you may celebrate during December! Anyway, it is past the magical day now, and I thought I'd introduce a very typically optimistic (Ha!) poem for the New Year. Maybe, if you're lucky I'll write something happy. Maybe I'll make that my New Year's resolution. I. Must. Write. Happier. Poems. I don't think I'd have the guts to stick with it, though. Never mind... I shall try one or two, just for my numerous (oh dear) and dedicated (that's even more of a lie) readers. Stick with me, honestly, and you just never know - I might end up with hundreds.

All jokes aside, this following poem could be a lot happier, but I was reading a lot of Yeats at the time and he tends to have rather adverse effects on me. The intention of the poem was to focus on how from year to year people cannot feel themselves noticeably change, and the repetitive farce of the New Year's resolution itself (this ties into what I was saying earlier - check out the continuity) in that people attempt to change themselves on one day every year. They might: stop smoking, stop drinking, start going to the gym or any number of unrealistic ideals. Changing yourself takes time and effort, the feeling that one might be able to do this immediately because their calendar needed replacing is ridiculous: in my mind, anyway.

To avoid further ranting and allow some time to placate myself, I shall now deliver my newest poem.

New Year and No Change

New year and no change.
What remains? Old fears
That just rearrange?
Habitual veneers

Occur and recur,
Exhausting resolve:
Until one incurs
Their joyless dissolve.

Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa, and have a happy new year (or if you're Chinese, you'll have to wait until February - I'm sorry).

RIWC