The Year in Review

So, I haven't blogged since Election Day, but I wanted to shoot off one more post before the year comes to a close. Between school and the holidays and a headache that hasn't gone away for over two weeks, I haven't had time to do much blogging, or much of anything, really. But I thought it might be good to think about the things I have accomplished this year. So, 2010, in a bullet list...

1. The Baking of Bread. Aside from being the title of a poem I wrote earlier this year, I have stopped buying packaged bread and now bake a loaf once or twice a week. I have nailed down honey wheat, Italian herb, French, and light rye.
2. Writing. I have completed 13 poems and 5 short stories this year, more writing than I have managed to do since I was a teenager.
3. Knitting. Since picking up knitting again this year, I have made 4 sweaters, a shawl, a skirt, a laptop holder, and a mitten. In total, I have knit almost 4 miles this year.
4. Blogging. There have been 17 Word Play posts this year, better than my 5-year average of 9 posts per year, but not as good as last year's 19.
5. School. I have taken 14 classes this year, studying French, public policy, English literature, creative writing, and philosophy.
6. Anniversary. Anthony and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this September.

And that's pretty much been my year. I will try to be more consistent in 2011. But I will leave you with The Poetry Student's Apology, an attempt of mine to capture the often humorous experience of being in a poetry workshop.


I'm a poetry student, please forgive me
for trying to find words that sound like “the,”
it's actually not so hard, as you can see,
but orange at the end was impossible to rhyme.

I'm a poetry student, will you forgive me
for the overabundance of profanity
I wasn't really trying to be funny
that's just the way that it comes out.

I'm a poetry student, can you forgive me
for word order that is sometimes clumsy
for using 'thy' when it should have been 'thee,'
in a poem that probably needed neither.

I am a poetry student, please forgive me
for writing that is all too free
for experimental vocabulary
for putting words down and letting them be
but how else was a thing ever learned?

Happy New Year!