Fill all the space you fill

A New Year's poem for poets and others paying attention

Photo by Mohammad Alizade on Unsplash

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Did I know this was a New Year’s poem when I wrote it? I did not. But when I thought about what lines I wanted to offer you as 2025 rolls in, this was the first poem I thought of.

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“The whole sky is yours to write on”                                                            2023


[The words used here as title and refrain are borrowed gratefully from the poem “Dawn Revisited,” by Rita Dove.]


The whole sky is yours to write on --
clouds and birds,
vapor trails and fog,
the wildfire’s choking haze,
and all that blue.

The whole sky is yours to write on --
nouns lifting in layers like mist,
verbs plunging through like raindrops and sparrows.
Careful writing too close to the sun,
or all the words go up in flames.

The whole sky is yours to write on.
Connect the stars like dots to trace each letter.
Fill that blackboard with galaxies of story.
Watch your words swoop like bats through the dark
and change shape with the moon.

The whole sky is yours to write on!
Paint your memories up there for all to see
like sunsets, constellations, thunderstorms.
Some may choose to look down, look away --
the sky will still be there.

Take all the space you need, love. Fill all
the space you fill. The whole sky
is yours to write on. The whole sky is yours.

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Because, listen: if you’re reading this, the world needs you right now. It needs the way you pay attention, and the way you respond to what you notice — in writing, in color and line, in tunes, in conversation, in what you make from scratch, in what you mend and make new. The world needs us, collectively, right now, to fill the whole sky with what our paying-attention shows us about what’s real and present and precious.

So if you’re reading this and wondering whether there’s room for what you make, wondering whether your making matters … the answer is Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Please go do that. Fill an inch of the sky or a whole cloud-scroll; whatever you have to offer is just what we need.