Two poems for the new year

This blog won’t usually be a place for publishing poems, but I’ve been tinkering with these for a while and they seem right for the moment: New Year’s Day, as well as my freshly unprofessional status.

Content

I think on my time spent writing for hire                  

Struggling to craft their priorities.                             

Now that quitting time’s arrived I     

Want to stop, think, abjure these                                           

Bare mercenary words                                               

Bald persuasive screeds                                                         

Serving others'                                                           

Unwelcome                                                                

Fiscal                                                                         

Needs.                                                                        

So.

What’s next?                                                              

"Poetry"                                                                     

Is too facile.                                                               

Yet there is a grace,                                                   

Found or made in practice,                                        

Thinking through slow words in forms                     

Arranging them, inutile, just                                     

As they please me. In doing so I                               

Glance what I may have to say. For now I                

Only have the goal to be content myself.     

New Year's Eve 2023

I send messages to future me.

Scrawled slips, snipped scrips, typed notes

Inspirations, admonitions

Cached away and saved

Bottled and sent floating down the time stream.

Hope they land

On new shores

Where I'll know

What they're for.