you are very idle, my songs

January 1, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, inspired 

i’ve spent the last few days looking back, looking forward, and there are beautiful things and ugly things in both places. isn’t that what we all resolve, simply: more beauty in the year to come, less ugliness than the year before? so this year i’m not making a long list of resolutions that will, of course, be broken. i’ve only got a few, and they’re more reminders than resolutions, but, all the same:

• slow down and take it all in (breathing deeply and biting the tongue when necessary)
• love more, especially the people in my house (which means letting other things go, for love)
• be there, here, right in the midst of all that is all around me (and maybe, hopefully, take some pictures of it)

year that is new, hello, you. the years are soaring past in a thunder and sound that comes a split second later. the days are in a hurry, shooting upwards like a holiday firecracker, golden and gone. the newness of a year, a very year, is upon us. where will we go? what will we see? who will we be in the end? let’s go!

But you, newest song of the lot, 

 You are not old enough to have done much mischief. 

 I will get you a green coat out of China 

With dragons worked upon it.

I will get you the scarlet silk trousers 

From the statue of the infant Christ at Santa Maria Novella. 

- Ezra Pound, part of Further Instructions

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