As a child the future was something that could be cut out of the Argos catalog and stuck inside a cardboard dream house. It was wishing to be older so I could play ‘proper’ Scrabble rather than Junior Scrabble. It was longing to be taller so I could ride the bigger rides. Then, as a teenager, the future became more difficult to define and harder to decide upon. Cardboard boxes and one-dimensional paper objects didn’t seem as important; I was capable of beating my Nan at ‘proper’ Scrabble, and I was tall enough to wish I was shorter.
From those uncertain years of adolescence until now, my relationship with the future has always been a reluctant one – a concept I’d much rather keep at a distance. As a consequence I’m not very fond of New Year’s Eve (everyone looking forward, celebrating) and in response I rarely make resolutions for the year ahead.
However, after experiencing a twelve month drought with my poetry, I started to consider making a writing plan for 2014 – something that meant fewer blank pages, less fear, greater awareness and a rebuilding of confidence. And so when I saw Jo Bell’s latest poetry project on my news feed yesterday morning it was like an elbow in my side, reminding me I’d failed to create a poetry resolution and that this year could end up being as wordless as the last. Thus, I have decided to attempt the 52 project, where the idea is to write a poem a week (with the aid of weekly blog posts) for a whole year, and hopefully this time next year I’ll have somethingrather than nothing.
Thank you for reading and please feel free to share your 2014 writing resolutions below.
Lara