*Tuesday Poem #13: Keeper of Days

*Because once again, I didn't get this written in time to share on Sunday...

Hello friends, and welcome to the darkness. In my part of the world, the cold dark nights are starting to arrive. Here’s a poem I wrote a couple years ago that waxes moody about November. I wanted to share it last week, but… life.

Photo by Claus Grünstäudl on Unsplash

Keeper of Days
- after Rilke

The first chill rode in on a windstorm, like a guest that let 
itself in through the back gate, sweeping everything 
left of autumn’s majesty away. So call it happen 
-stance or grace that the trees turned late to 
burn until the clocks turn back. Look, you
see how fading autumn days hold beauty 
in their brevity — golden, glowing, and 
grieving in unleaving. Do you feel terror

at another year’s turn? Is time un-just 
to drag us on? Somewhere the Keep 
-er of Days waits beyond the veil, is going 
to wind every clock back someday until no 
thing wastes away. Autumn is fleeting, feeling, 
full. In timelessness I’ll still hope for seasons. Is 
there still winter there, in that land where nothing’s final?

---

Why yes, I do love a good golden shovel. I wrote this one during the November Poem a Day challenge in 2021, the first year that we started making our own prompts at The Poetry Pub. Fridays are for trying forms, but that this is one of our favorites and must show up yearly. Take a peek at the last word of each line and you’ll see a little hidden message from one of my favorite poems, “Go to the Limits of Your Longing” by Rainer Maria Rilke.

It’s so chaotic that sometimes I’m not sure it works. But I kind of love that about writing forms. It’s a puzzle to solve, and sometimes the word choices surprise you.

Also, if you center align the text it looks like an hourglass, so that’s cool. Substack won’t let me do that though, so you’ll have to either trust me or turn to page 71 in Beneath the Flood. (shameless book plug!)

I thought I might share a new poem with y’all, since it’s #NovPAD season again, but… about that…

my face when I tell you about all the poems I’m not writing this month

I love the November Poem a Day challenge. I’ve been doing it over a decade now, starting with the Writer’s Digest prompts as a replacement for NaNoWriMo.¹ My beloved little Poetry Pub community actually started just so a few friends could do it together. I’ve never actually finished November with 30 poems — or even 30 passable poem drafts — but I think the bulk of my two books came out of this challenge.

This year, our community pulled together a beautiful list of prompts circling around the idea of Time and Seasons. The Instagram graphics were made, the posts scheduled, the notebook prepared. I was ready.

Then November hit and I just… couldn't feel it. I scribbled a draft for the first prompt that felt kinda tired and obligated, if I’m honest. Now it’s day 13. I think I have 4 drafts, and maybe 1 or 2 could become something.

One friend texted me to confess they were skipping out this year. I replied along the lines of hey, actually probably same.

There’s still a good chunk of November left. Every day is a chance to pick up wherever and do what I can. Or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll just finish knitting the scarf I’m working on and read and let some new ideas percolate.

I do wonder why I’m sharing this. But hey, here’s your friendly reminder that it’s okay to push yourself as a creative person — to make things when you don’t feel like it, to challenge yourself to try something absurd and new.

And it’s also okay to skip out. ✌🏼

1. As in “National Novel Writing Month.” As in, “write a novel in 30 days it’ll be fun I swear.” I successfully completed the challenge twice back when I had the energy to stay up until 1am writing and still go to work the next day.