Nikki Giovanni died last week...one of my favorite poets...I happened to catch the last half hour of the 2023 documentary "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project" the other night on HBO...it left me smiling for a while...there are words that dance on the page...but hearing them read aloud is other worldly...being a writer...a poet...reading other works...loving other poets...that's a tricky thing...there's always that fine line between admiration and subconscious regurgitation...because isn't all creativity new interpretation of basic tenets?...2024 is winding down...slipping, not so quietly, in early sunsets and winter winds...and there isn't just a weather-related drought here in New York...I have been feeling it acutely in my writing...or lack thereof...this year, the world and life stole my creative thunder...many times...we seem to feel those empty chairs at the table more acutely as the candles mount on our birthday cakes...makes me think of another favorite poet...Mary Oliver...who seamlessly wove the innate fear of mortality into exquisite thoughts on nature and earthly delights...and that is the real beauty in poetry...reading, and thinking - yes, I feel that too!...here's hoping that there are more poems inside me...that life gives me the grace to voice them...and for the end of this year I leave you with the closing line of my favorite Nikki poem, The Women Gather..."it is not unusual to sift through the ashes and find an unburnt picture"...
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