(Reading tip: if you are reading this on your phone screen, turning the screen sideways will result in a correct placement of each line; otherwise, they are broken up in unusual and not especially poetic fashion.)
Empty Agenda
Remember when you’d look at your overscheduled life, a
planner packed with wall-to-wall meetings and to-do lists,
and wish for just one deliciously blank day in your agenda?
How long ago that seems, and still so impossible to achieve
as long as you fixate on what you should be doing but aren’t
instead of celebrating the chance to just be here, at last with
No requisite immediate plans or goals or objectives to meet.
(Originally written 4/25/2020)
I invite those who are also writing creatively in response to the pandemic to share their words in the comments below. I am sharing the “poem-a-day” on Instagram and Twitter, as well; follow me @mridleyelmes !
Melissa Ridley Elmes 