Reflections and resolutions [poem: Inspiration]

Update: The Daily Inter Lake published this poem in its print version April 10, 2011, accompanying a story about the new poetry open-mic in Kalispell. You can read my post about the article here. And you can hear me read this poem at said open-mic in the second clip here.

I’ve never been one for resolutions at the new year, which Mark Twain famously called “a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls and humbug resolutions.” But for some reason the latest calendar change prompted me to reflect on the past couple of years and the direction the coming months will take. Perhaps I was simply given time to do so in long car rides to and from holiday gatherings. Maybe it’s because the emotional and physical ups and downs of the last couple of years seem to have calmed to a more appealing, meandering path. Or it could be as simple as this: It was time.

One of the things I reflected upon was this blog. I started it in hopes of connecting with other poets, and I have been hugely successful in this. I also wanted a forum for feedback on work I hope to compile into a book. That idea, while still there, has lost its urgency. Some of the poems will be the better for the distance I am going to give them. Admitting that brought the realization that the events and emotions that inspired the pieces are just that: inspiration. In life, I’ve already moved on.

So as the new year begins, I send a huge “thank you” to everyone who’s shared their reactions to my poems and to those who shared their own work with me, bringing me new inspiration. In that vein:

Inspiration

creeps in
hides among cattails
prowls along the riverbank
waits to be noticed
ignored

jumps up
waves like the dog’s tail
begs feed me, pet me, come play
signals something must
be done

hangs on
prepares its offense
recruits the next word, image
until I reach for
the pen

—Julie Laing