poetic winds

As I am about to enter the fifth and last afternoon of a poetry marathon in honor of Poetry Month, I am amazed that I've managed to get through this super-busy week. Lists and lists of lists are stuffed into my bag along with pens, notebooks, loose poems and the all important appointment book. And the wind is driving us all crazy! Everyone I encounter is talking about it (not that it's anything new). We have winds. But especially so in early spring and this year.
          When the new winds slammed in a few days ago they brought much colder air. It has been relentless since then and I noticed this morning when I left for town on errands, that gardens that had been watered yesterday afternoon in the warming sun, were encased in glass-like crystals today. Dramatic as they looked as the early sun shone through icey beauty, it was a detriment to recently blooming daffodils. But survival is the key word in northern NM and what survives at all tends to grow hardier each year and with each new blast from nature.

Most amazing of all, however, is that this week I managed to finish the green hat I'd been working on. In fact, no matter what time I arrived home at night (and some nights it was late) I picked up my needles and worked a few rows. Sometimes those rows were accompanied by a glass of wine or hot tea. A couple of times I was so tired, but not sleepy, that I found myself ripping out the few rows I'd managed to knit. Then suddenly, late last night, I realized it was finished! Hooray! This weekend I hope to drive down to Santa Fe for more yarn in a new array of colors. That's part of the fun - same hat but a different color each time.

So for now, I have to get back to writing today's poem. Forget yarn and other stuff. Just write. Write. Write. And hope it's not the worst junk ever. And, by the way, if it is - it doesn't really matter. It's the doing, the getting into the groove that really matters. And the lovely group of people I've gotten to know through their work. And the incredible hospitality of host Lise Goett - poet extraordinaire!