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.
“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.
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.
Such a beautiful, permissive poem. One of my favorite poetic lines (David Whyte) is “The world was made to be free in”. This piece has beautiful intonations that bring me to that line.
Happy New Year Elizabeth. I really appreciate your relationship to writing; your willingness to get out of the way and be "surprised" by what comes out.
You know, the thing I like about writing most is how "paper and ink" are so cheap. Write now, worry later...❤️