Longing for May
Longing for May is the theme for today. Who among us is not eager for the grey melt of snow to transform into a vibrant greening of spring bulbs and budding leaves?
My poem about a moment of personal clarity while I gardened last May has been awarded second place in a poetry contest and is published in the local Park Bugle, a newspaper that serves the place where I office and volunteer my time on the neighborhood’s community development.
I celebrate this honor as it brings me full circle to when I was in my early 20s, the year I graduated from Beloit College with a degree in creative writing and won the White-Howells Prize for Poetry. In clearing out some old files I even found the stub for the $25 that came with this recognition.
In those years I spent hours searching for my words, questioning ideas, worrying if I would find a path forward in life. I questioned, was writing poetry of any value? How would it make any difference in helping me find a job or a career?
As I enter yet another phase of my life, I’ve taken up writing again, finding that poetry is a form of sustenance, even a necessity, for making sense of a world in turmoil.
In the second of four pathways to a fuller life spelled out in the Storyslices coaching method you will find my invitation to engage in your creative expression as a principle way to overcome a tendency for shutting off our unique gifts and stifling our creative contributions, expression that just might offer us illumination.
I will be reading this poem and other writing from my memoir at an event on Earth Day and you are invited: 7 pm April 22 at CoCreatz.