Happy New Year - A new year brings new opportunities. A resolution I have made is that each day I will write at least one poem and take and select at least one new photograph. I am also going to experiment with different poetic forms, such as GROOKS, invented by the Danish Scientist Piet Hein, and Haiku and Lunes! One of his Grooks is:
BUDGETING: THE FIRST LAW
If you want to know where your money went
you must spend it quickly before its spent.
And I will get inspired by other poets, like Bernadette Mayer - an innovative poet from Brooklyn - who always surprises.
A LA BERNADETTE
! walk along the sidewalk
In English that’s a pavement
A startled thrush hops into the bush
A nonchalant lizard scoots away.
Why take the cat for a walk?
when all this happens
as I walk home.
TO PIET HEIN - MY GROOK
Piet Hein invented the Grook
inviting us to take a look
at his brilliant inventions
that defy conventions.
Now I’m encouraged to write my books
poems quite nonsensical
and rather whimsical
that could just as well be grooks.
WHEN IS NEW YEAR’S DAY, REALLY?
Shouldn’t it be December 22nd
the beginning of expanding light
after the north’s longest night.
A time to clean our houses
letting go of old grouses.
What about those useless habits
running us around like scared rabbits.
Then there are books and papers
we will never read again,
like dried out useless pens,
and other things filling drawers
spilling out onto floors.
TO A SIMPLE YEAR!
Simplicity reveals goodness
washes away the unnecessary
like a divine shower,
like deep breath
welcoming in fresh air.
Decluttered Befriending
the wandering mind
opening the loving heart,
revealing
the joy of living.
Simplicity is a path to follow.
EVERLASTING RAZOR BLADES
I dont shave every day anymore
now Harry’s blades last forever
It’s New year I will start fresh
out with the old, in with the new
well that’s not completely true
i do that each month on the first
so that day the glide is smoothed
and all the stubble easily removed.
12 a year at the most
arriving in the post.
Fashionable young fellows
must have dark masculine stubble,
like a form of hairy rubble
puncturing Gillette’s income bubble.
BOOKS
I’ve emptied the book cases
now I have organized piles.
Books I bought hoping to read
Books read once and never again
Intruiging, guiding, mystifying.
Books about places for future adventures
Books about places I want to remember
Novels, Poems, puzzles, money
Astrology, mythology, pschylogy
Grooks, haikus, zen
bhuddism, yoga, spiriuality
Creativity, aging and dying
photography, biography
mysteries, histories
Books to keep
books to pass on.
OPPORTUNITY
2023 an opportunity to refresh,
let go of of old habits that enmesh
trapping us in a messy web
like mafia boots of solid lead.
Resolutions and goals can be a trap
or you can see them as a map
laying out ideas for this year
letting go of failure fear.
What will be will be
que sera sera
what will happen will happen.
so keep those feet tapping
and your hands clapping
and have a perfectly perfect year.
TO BED
So now its late, to bed I go
and whatever happens, let it flow.
I’m tired, but I might get inspired
very well fed, I will lie in bed.
Words start forming in a stream
Oh wait! This is really a dream.
And dreams are important
they have no pollutant
conveying truth from a freer state
delivering inspiration on a plate.
Awake awake before it’s too late!
©MartinStrasmore2023
