Hi coug,
Ah, your run sounds just wonderful. I'm envious of anyone over the age of 40 whose knees are still good enough to merit running. It must be an incredible feeling. And running in that beautiful environment must indeed be a high.
Your question about what I'd learned at the poetry conference has gotten me thinking. We were very lucky to have Steven Dunn, this year's Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry, as a guest lecturer. He said something that really put things in place for me, something about the integrity of the poem itself and how, as the poet, I need to serve the poem. I like that sentiment a great deal. I'd been "stuck" in a couple of poems and was able to finish them, move through them, by understanding this.
Giving up control, to some degree, I suppose. This has become a general life lesson for me as I enter middle age: that letting go is often the most reasonable, loving, and honest thing to do. |
