My attitude toward New Year’s resolutions is summed up in two of my earlier poems:
        “ACCELERANDO (a Kyrielle pattern): The New Year’s resolutions made, / in February’s fabric, fade. / Like each day’s short-lived, colored dawn, / another year has come and gone. //
        “So many noble goals were set, / like cleaning oven, closet; yet, / a week passed by with every yawn! / Another year has come and gone. //
        “The pundits say the way to gauge/ time’s flight is by advancing age. / Good reason why, though plans were drawn, / another year has come and gone.”
        “FOLLY (a Minute pattern): Most new year’s resolutions fade, / for we will trade/ most any-thing/ to keep a-wing/ of long-held habits—dark, entrenched--/ although to quench/ them we apply/ the old standby: / our annual resolutions ploy--/ a mere decoy. / We’ll never change--/ just rear-range.”
        I made no resolutions for two-thousand-oh-eight. Anticipations – now that’s something I can get my interest and energy around. Here are eight things I look forward to happening during this next year.
  
        1. I have set a goal to finish my novel-in-progress by the last day of 2008. Who knows how close to the end this story is? Not I. With another two weeks this April at the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow, I might get enough accomplished that I can revise and proof after that, then have someone I trust critique it. Perhaps by then, I will have settled on a title.
  
        2. I greatly look forward to the end, the blessed end, to the presidential race. And, further, I hope that the voters will not elect another man from Hope, Arkansas.
  
        3. I long for this country to decide what to do about our country’s situation in Iraq.
  
        4. I hope to continue writing columns for Calliope during 2008. Kudos to Cynthia and Sandy for their hard work in making the publication an assist for the writer.

         5. I anticipate not using too many verbs as nouns (see “assist” above). However, in my read-ing, I see more and more of it. “CONsult” – noun. As in, “The minister’s consult with the District Superintendent is next week.”
  
        6. Since William Shakespeare called sleep “the chief nourisher of life’s feast.”(from an AP article on disturbed sleep that may be linked to diabetes), I intend to nap daily if possible.
  
        7. I envision finding a way to use more of the trivia I transcribe in my daybook as I read the papers (local and state). For instance, surnames that could be strung together with articles (a, an, the) to create a poem or a story or a chapter. Oh, wait. I’ve already written two poems and one chapter based on surnames. The chapter has appeared in Calliope under the title, “The Seventh Year.” Why am I enamored of the first names of couples from the early 1900s? For instance, Bernie and Thad (1924), Keller Lee and Jasper Newt (1920), Della and Flippin (1917), Elfie and Norton (1915) and Clara and Clarence (1916). Something in my childhood, perhaps.
  
        8. I expect to keep up the nightly routine of summarizing the day in blank verse that I began in late November 07. An example of the latest entry (in a little fat notebook) is: “I read aloud from Lowell, Borland, one/ which writes old-fashioned verse; the other, prose/ that sounds – when read aloud – like poetry./ Today, I went to cousin Ann’s to see/ the newest baby in the family. / From Ethiopia, she flew with dad and Grandma Mary-Ann to Baltimore/ where she will live with brother Ansel, mom/ named Hannah and her dad named Devin. Joy/ will have a future now, a loving home/ extended family and many friends.”
        A poet whom I told about my nightly writing decided to try it, but she composes haiku. So far, she’s kept the faith, er, kept up the practice. Make your own list of anticipations. Perhaps you’ll want to post them on the website forum. May the rest of 2008 be happy and productive for all of you.