Can we talk about it? The joy of summer??? I remember packing up my classroom at the end of the year as usual, with a level of impatience that cannot be described. It’s the idea of late, unrestricted nights followed by even later mornings (the alarm has been disabled), travel, reading, writing, TV binge-watching….all of it. Whatever my heart desires. My time is mine to do with what I please.

And here we are, four weeks in (with four weeks still left to go–woo hoo!), and I’m reveling in it. Spending time with my kids, getting caught up with my reading, getting my exercise in at my leisure…and in the middle of all it, still promoting Five Dreams. There have been book fairs and signings (some successful, some not) but it’s been time to just meet people, share poetry, and interestingly enough, rest my mind and take some time off from writing (which is why I haven’t made a blog post in a minute).

What’s that you say? No writing? Absolutely. Summer is completely about rejuvenation, and as I rolled out the door for the last time at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, I inadvertently but necessarily took the pressure off my shoulders to write as well. I know some people believe that to be a successful writer, you must write every day, even for five minutes…and I get it. It helps to keep your writing sharp and your skills up-to-date. But too much of anything can be detrimental, and I don’t think we give enough credence to the idea that sometimes we need to refill and replenish the wells from which our creativity stems.

But lucky for me–I have no such qualms!!! I’m happy to let my mind unwind with nothingness, silliness, or randomness…the end result is that eventually, that desire to write will return, and when it does, my well will be full, ideas plentiful, and the stories will come. So I can relax and wait for it. I’m good.

I will share this though: that’s the thing about time off. This happens to me every year, and I actually wrote a poem about it once. I had all these big plans to write a whole bunch of stuff, but the vacation clock started and I realized that I had no desire to write at all—well, except for this one poem that I happened to write at the beginning of vacation one year. Once completed, I didn’t pick up my pen for a minute…and I had no regrets.

This poem is called Quest Aborted, and it is taken from Five Dreams.

Quest Aborted

They gave me seven days
To write my next great verse
To put my pen to paper
And in my words become immersed.
A week to write my tale
To forge great lines with words and tone
Undisturbed by life’s distractions
Here in the quiet of my home.
Oh, seven days! Yes, seven days!
How I’m apt to fill the time,
With ode or prose or tale to spin
This work should be sublime.
The clock will tick its passage
As I scribble, pen, and write,
My greatest manifesto
Meant only to delight.
But as I sip a glass of wine
And the music softly plays
The words are slipping from me
And the hours turn to days.
The quiet is a solace
And the peace brings comfort too;
The will to bring a tale to life
No longer does ring true.
My mind is wont to rest
And my spirit wander free
Words and verse and prose and tale
Will steal serenity.
So for seven days—oh seven days!
I’ll take my leave of this scribe’s chore
And grant interlude to find me
That my spirit be restored.