(Picture courtesy Good Morning America)

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Healthy, free, the world before me,

The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

                                                                             Walt Whitman (Song of the Open Road)

Hello everyone! We are but a day away from February. I hope the first month of this year has been good for you. Despite my promise to myself and some blogger friends, I have been away from blogging for more than a month. Sometimes breaks are much longer than intended.

I am pretty good at meeting deadlines (by the skin of my teeth most times) but hopeless at sticking to resolutions. So, as we step into the second month of this new year, tell me how far have you been able to stick to your new year resolutions. Do you religiously make resolutions every year and stick to them or do you make them only to break them in January itself?

Whatever your views maybe about resolutions, I am sure you will agree with this excerpt from Kipling’s poem “New Year Resolutions“.

I am resolved—that vows like these,

Though lightly made, are hard to keep;

Wherefore I’ll take them by degrees,

Lest my backslidings make me weep.

One vow a year will see me through;

And I’ll begin with Number Two.

Most of us are invested in our good health and resolve to exercise and eat healthy in the new year due to the guilt of bingeing during the festive season. So come January, our intentions are to curb our appetites and behaviour, but…

I came across this gem of a verse on resolutions that are “Forgotten by February“.

January actually may not be the best time to get rid of bad habits, though I must admit “New Year Resolution” does sound grand! The truth is, we don’t need a specific day to change our lives. We can do it from the first of February or the middle of June. We can resolve to do things that are doable, like drink more water, eat at least one clean, healthy meal a day, use less plastic or being nice to a stranger and see how it goes. We can do it for a day or a week and then take it forward. January first need not be the game changer. A resolution need not be punishing, it should fill us with us with a sense of accomplishment and more importantly, contentment.

This poem though written for 2018, could well have been for 2023 too!

I came across an article in New York Times that talked about the best advice one would like to share with friends as a new year resolution. So, for today’s poetics I thought we should all give another go to resolutions. I share five random pieces of advice. Weave any one of them in a poem in whichever way you want to. Use it as a springboard for your verse. It could be a resolution poem for yourself or maybe a family member or friend. If none of these advice inspires you, write a poem on your very own resolution.

1. Your self-worth is not in your inbox.

      2. When you add something to the cupboard of life, subtract something.

      3. Immerse yourself completely in a happy moment and say aloud, “I am happy now”!

     4. Parent the child you have and don’t try to turn them into what you want.

     5. At the end of each day fold your clothes and put them away, no matter how tired you are.

Here are some more poems on new year resolutions.

• If you choose to respond to the challenge, write a poem on your blog.
• Link it (the post and not your blog) by clicking on Mr. Linky.
• Do take out time to read other poets who have linked.
• Please link back to Dverse too.

Happy writing!