Monkey Off My Back

by Catherine Giordano

One year later. Over 400 poems later.  How does it feel to have the “monkey off my back”? It feels great.

The “monkey” is the self-imposed requirement to write a daily poem based on something in that day’s Orlando Sentinel. I actually did it—I wrote one or more of these “news print poems” everyday.

It feels great to have this chronicle of 2012. 

It feels great to have my book, News PrintPoetry 2012: Best of 2012 on amazon.com

It feels great not to have to go through the paper three times trying to find something that I can turn into a poem.

I thought I would have this hole in my day—the “hole” being the hour or more I spent writing my poem. Not so. It is like a hole you might scoop out of a lake. In a split second, the hole is filled back up.  I don’t feel like I have an extra hour in my day.  

I thought I’d be finding “poems” in the newspaper everyday—poems that would be too good to pass up. Not so much.  Perhaps because I have been so busy compiling the poems for my book.

I’m glad I undertook this project. I’m glad I had fortitude to stick with it. I’m glad it’s over.

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