New Years Resolutions
(Better late than never)
I’ll bottle the fresh air in pretty jars labeled with things like, “the day I ate the best pancakes ever” or “gliding down 9J, windows open“. I’ll repeat the words that make me squirm, feel nervous, till they become the things that make me stretch my back and stand taller. I’ll move faster than I can think, feel more words roll around my tongue than I can spit out, kiss the skin that keeps it all together and love the unknown wrapping of each morning, carry with me each evening all I want from the day*, lay in bed and think - shit, I’m alive dammit - I’m alive and I am going to exhaust every molecule, every last trembling vein.
*from a poem by William Stafford
When you turn around, starting here, lift this
new glimpse that you found; carry into evening
all that you want from this day. This interval you spent
reading or hearing this, keep it for life –
What can anyone give you greater than now,
starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?
by William Stafford
