Fulfilling my obligations to my long-neglected TBR one book a time. Want to know why? I explain it in the first post here. Posting striking lines daily on BlueSky

This week’s post is all about beginnings. I agree with Editor Charif Shanahan that “….I see September–not January–as the start of a new year.” They come to this because they make their living teaching. I come to this from the fact that I am a giant Northern nerd and, mostly, an indoor kid. September is the true month of new beginnings. It is twilight. It is a settling down. It is the start of storytelling. September means school and school means reading for not only fun but for work as well. The unbearable hear of summer is forgotten in September. You can breathe the air again, you can be outside comfortably, the mosquitoes are gone, everything smells so good. And winter is coming.

I much prefer the quiet of winter, the rhythm of skiing, and everything about snow. September is the month in which I was born and it is the gateway to all of my fondest childhood memories. This issue of “Poetry” magazine has some very good poetry in it, including a poem by Zakaria Mohamed (translated from the Arabic by Lena Tuffaha) called “August 15” that sums my feelings up beautifully:

I am here, tardy autumn, waiting for you. I’ve prepared you a wheat
porridge and lit a fire. Come with your wind and sweep away the shameless
sun. Lift its hand from my shoulders.

If you follow me over on BlueSky you already know that I post lines I find striking every day as I slowly read through one book or issue each week. This quote from Ntozake Shange is featured on the back cover of the magazine and is what is driving my creativity this week:

what if poetry isn’t enuf?
watchu gonna do then?