A Writer's notebook, Day One-Hundred-Fifty-One

I tackled another poem that was a bit hard, and which I have had in my head for some time.  It is about the poet Thomas Lux, who passed away in 2017, and who was my adviser as an undergraduate in college.  He had a very important role in my life, though I didn't have a strong relationship with him after I graduated.  Honestly, I had always expected that I would reconnect with him at some point, but the opportunity for that to happen is passed. The truth is that I have a lot of things I could speak about in terms of my feelings about him and his passing, and this poem is really fairly limited in scope, but it was a beginning and an attempt to put some of the thoughts and feelings I have into a shape.

The poem doesn't really go all that deep in terms of the things that I could explore in terms of that relationship, but it is something that I had in mind for a long time.  It takes as it's subject the game of softball, which I used to play as an undergraduate with Thomas Lux and various other writers.  Most of the players were students in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence, where I went to school, though it did at times include other writers, including some visiting poets.  Not being a person who is inclined towards athletics, it was probably a bit odd that I was the one undergrad who wanted to play, and I am not particularly inclined towards athletics even today, but I still sort of miss those games.  The poem uses that as a sort of vehicle to help explore that relationship a bit and the loss itself.

It is rather late already, so I am going to keep this on the short side tonight.  I am glad that I got the work done, and I think that I am getting myself back into a good habit in terms of writing poetry on a daily basis.  I want to be able to get myself firing on multiple fronts, and to get back to fiction and other works again, but I also realize the importance of keeping the writing of poetry as a priority.  It really does, I think, make a big difference for me, and I am hoping that I will find myself feeling a much different sort of motivation in the near future as I continue that connection and the work I am doing.

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