Sunday, January 01, 2012

The Magic Number

As we turn a new leaf...
—Photo by Joyce Odam


TURNING THE YEAR
—Joyce Odam, Sacramento

The year—deciduous at last—its days
all counted down, its worries and its woe,
its seasons done, the testing of its ways—
      and one more January looms.
Our favorite holiday, we laugh, and go

toward it with the energy it brings—
our yearly resolutions strong again
until they end up with the other things
      that fit our mental storage rooms—
the ones we try to clean out now and then.

____________________

BREATH OF TIME
—Joyce Odam

The view is good from here.
Snow birds cry love to me.
The mountain peaks shine.

The sunlight pours down
on everything.
I hear the thin ring of bells

from valley churches.
I can even fly—soar,
through dreams—

all explained.
My body is light. My mind
has never been so deep.

Love shines from within me,
touches everyone.
It is brief but good.

I feel a swarm of color.
I am surrounded by sunlight.
I transform into all of it.

I have reached the magic number
of myself.
This year I celebrate.

_____________________ 

Today's LittleNip: 

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives, not looking for flaws, but for potential.

—Ellen Goodman

_____________________ 

—Medusa, with New Year's Tidings for all in this Year of the Dragon (see www.squidoo.com/year-of-the-dragon). For some good and not-so-good New Year's resolutions for writers, go to billanddavescocktailhour.com/10-bad-new-years-resolutions-for-writers-bad-advice-wednesday-holiday-edition


 Photo by Joyce Odam