Whispered Wanderings

We have reached the end of the month… this year, the writing and sharing and reading what others have shared has brought me such incredible joy, I feel like I am changed forever by the experience.

Today’s prompt: “write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. For example, you might pick a poem you drafted earlier in the month and write a poem that contradicts or troubles it. This could be an interesting way to start working on a series of related poems. Alternatively, you could play around with the idea of a palinode by writing a poem in which the speaker says something like “I take it back” or otherwise abandons a prior position within the single poem.”

For my final poem of this month, I chose to use my poem from Day 14.

A New Road

Like birds flying south for the winter
zigging and zagging in their flight path
it would take a series of choices
to change this road I’m on.
Not just one;
each choice changes the landscape
and so requires another
which begets another
until a new road is built
sturdy enough for me to walk upon.

I’m tired of running the other way,
truth be told;
down this old road covered in potholes
filled with my fears…
This weariness allows me to see
at last
that it’s also a choice
each time I fall into one
instead of building the new road.

Not just one
but a series of choices
will change
this road I’m on.

klm
4/30/23