While I haven’t written a poem every single day of the month so far, I have managed to write most of the days. I do notice that with this challenge, I find myself looking at the world with a slightly more poetic eye; that is, daily life is more likely to spark an idea for a poem, or appear in sharper, more meaningful focus. So all in all, I think this challenge is doing what I’d hoped: Re-igniting a creative spark in my mind and spirit.

As a new school year begins, I have set a few monthly challenges for myself. These challenges are all meant to remind me to connect with my creativity or spirituality in simple (hopefully daily) ways. For September, I am going to try my best to write an original poem every day, and to share what I’m writing. None of these poems will be brilliant. They’ll all be mostly first drafts. But the hope is that by stepping regularly into the craft of writing poetry (which was where I first really discovered my love of writing as a high school sophomore), I’ll tap into a part of myself that has been a bit dormant lately.

So, without further ado, a couple poems from the early days of September:

It’s hard to believe that we’re already past the ‘halfway’ point of the year. Around this time, I usually find myself forgetting what my One Word Theme of the year was, and looking back a bit regretfully at the list of goals I set for myself way back in January (which feels like a very long time ago frankly). I don’t think there’s anything wrong with changing your mind, but I’m something of a chronic mind-changer, and so I might need to engage in a small amount of healthy self-discipline and reflection, just to get back on track, but also, to focus on where I’d like to go.

As I write this blog, the world outside my window is still very wintry. There is ice in the backyard that seems determined to stay locked on the ground, and a light snow has been falling most of the night. It’s hard to believe that we are in the final days of March. Spring always comes—this I am told, but this Montana winter seems to be endless, and I’m running low on optimism most days. Still, there were bright spots in the past month, small moments of beauty and light, of comfort and happy entertainment. Two that stand out:

Why not create a regular post where I share some of my key ‘take-aways’ from the things I’m listening to and reading? Writing these things down will hopefully have the same impact that those tiny, meticulous note pages had in high school and college–I’ll do better on the test (in this case, the “test of living a happier life” I suppose). One can only hope. 

So, without further ado, here are three current Things I’m Trying to Learn: