Literary Hook: Poem shares observations and wisdom gained over time

Christine Swanberg

By Christine Swanberg
Author and Poet

The new year often means resolutions or a new way of looking at life. Sometimes we look over the year to see what we may have learned. We try to discern better ways of thinking and spending our time. Sometimes, the lessons are bittersweet. Sometimes, insights are incisive. As we get older, our insights include a lifetime of observations.

About Time

Perhaps some wisdom resides

in your limitations.

If you want to be authentic,

be careful not to trade

one tribe for another. Cancer

isn’t caused by bad thoughts.

Don’t confuse pity with love

or you might spend

your life with the wrong people.

The number of calls

you receive on your cell phone

is not the measure

of your importance. Technology

is a tool, not a destination.

Jealousy serves no purpose.

Note the lousy within it.

If you don’t cultivate solitude

or court silence as a friend,

you may end up lonely

in a room full of noise.

If you haven’t seen the stars

in a while, it’s about time.

Christine Swanberg is a local author and poet. Her books include Who Walks Among the Trees with Charity (Wind Publishing, Kentucky), The Red Lacquer Room (Chiron Publishing, Kansas), The Tenderness of Memory (Plainview Press, Texas) and Slow Miracle (Lakeshore Publishing, Illinois).

From the Jan. 18-24, 2012, issue