There Will Be Time

Okay, I’m back!  After four months off from the Stillwater Symposia, I have finally set my fingers to keyboard to write something new for the blog.  But first, thank you, Dan, for announcing my self-publishing of Thirty Birds.  Until I actually set myself to the task of marketing, my book is still not much more than an attic book for posterity, but I am happy to have it in presentable form now.  And thank you for the two five star Amazon reviews from people with different last names!

The book is not what has primarily diverted me these four months, though.  The real diversion started with that hospital scare in April, which prompted me to get very serious about not just exercise and diet but time and stress management.  My workload has been even busier than it was in April, but I am learning how to pace the day (Josh, your office help has been a great help in that regard!) and avoid the stressful moments.   And, yes, I’ve gotten a little obsessed with the diet and exercise, but I’ve reached my weight goal so I am not quite as absolute on the food rules (thanks folks for hot dogs AND hamburgers last weekend).  Still running two miles every morning, though.

And still no caffeine!  Which brings me to the first of the two poems I am offering today.  Anne, you saw a draft of this in July, and Dan, I really did lose it for a month or so, but here it is, my existential commentary (thank you for the word, Anne) on my daughter’s developing caffeine habit.  So far she is not interested in reading it.

The second poem, just written yesterday, is prompted by Andrew’s recent reminding me of how overwhelming the world can sometimes seem to a thirteen year old.  I did read this one to him, and I think he appreciated the effort, if not the villanelle variations or my playing on a Dylan Thomas theme.  Maybe in time.

And, to borrow a line from my book’s Social Creatures* (and from Eliot’s Prufrock) , there will be time.  After four months of seriousness, I do expect to be raging against the dying of the light for quite a few more years now.

* http://www.thirtybirdspoetry.com/2011/03/social-creatures.html