First Thoughts

Just before dawn, velvet quiet and new snow in the orchard:

After semester grading, after holiday meals and celebration with family and friends, after
settling into my do-as-I-please schedule, the return to my usual life is calling. Meetings this week, then by Thursday January 15, the new semester begins. I have been enjoying this time off. Reading, writing, knitting, daydreaming-- a lot of daydreaming.

Have written several poems and "eyeblink" fictions-- my interest since the Winter Wheat Festival at Bowling Green this past November. Once the semester begins, my writing, which I believe requires an inward motion (all about me) collides with teaching which is an outward motion ( all about them). I'm constantly juggling between the two. Consequently, I've set some goals. I decided that the best way to maintain goals is to create "the list of goals" on a quarterly basis, and add.

So here's my list thus far:

1. To have a lot of fun this year. Go to more readings, lectures, art exhibits, music, and so on.

2. To complete my collection of essays (writing) and send my third full length collection of
poems out into the world.

3. To pick out new seeds and trees from the catalogues that just arrived.

4. To be here now, in the moment. Know that it's live and I'm living.


I think I will keep a weekly report on these goals. See if the quarterly plan works.