Rosemary Nissen-Wade #30.2 (and farewell): 30 Days of Delight

30 Days of Delight

To my companions at Project 366

Every morning

I bring my coffee

and come to the feast,

where I linger.

I meet beauty – my reason

for this whole lifelong

engagement with poetry,

and passion for visual art.

I find quirkiness, laughter,

deep thought

and deeper feelings –

great nourishment.

Oh, I like

poems to get my teeth into,

to devour in gulps, or to savour;

tasty, piquant images,

and others that slake thirst.

So I’m sorry to leave you, and

like Penelope (who just said goodbye)

after 30 days of making poems,

I notice I’m tired. It’s surprising.

‘Writing begets writing’

I said at the outset.

And so it has been. A pouring.

More than one a day.

A delight. A fervour.

(Not taking anything out

of my life – oh, except housework

and exercise. Adding this in.)

I realise now, it must have taken

invisible reserves of energy.

Would persistence have increased

fatigue or stamina? I won’t know.

‘It is never any use

dwelling on goodbyes,’

a wise person, whose name

I’m too lazy to look up now, said.

‘It is not the being together

it prolongs. It is the parting.’ Yes.

The time has come to say goodbye.

And so, my sweets, let us part.

I’ll never grow too old to dream;

still your art will live in my heart.

(Now that I’ve got you all weepy –

don’t panic, I’ll be lurking and reading.)