The Shoulds of Spring

Spring has come early to Finland. The snow is melted and the city is full of dust from the grit they use on the roads. Finns and those non-Finns who have been here for a while are suspicious, knowing it's too early to get our hopes up. That takatalvi is always a possibility, the Finnish return to winter. Takatalvi means a sudden dump of snow or the temps dropping to twenty below zero just when the weather seems to turn towards spring. True spring when you can actually pack your shovels, snow boots and gloves away is always late here, well into April usually.

I should be writing about the light returning as my poems are usually seasonal, but I'm still writing my strange, half-love poems. I'm ignoring a lot of 'shoulds' which is a slight worry, but also very liberating. Nothing vital is being ignored with my kids and my job and whatever else they put me in charge of. I am carving out very specific times where I just don't, unless I want to. And that feels good.

I'm writing again thankfully. Of all the things that slipped away this winter that worried me. I have a pile of unread books I know I will get back to, the dust bunnies will wait, but there was a definite sense of lack in being unable to find a way into writing. So I'm thankful for the rush of hormones or whatever is driving these weird poems. 

The use of the words 'weird' and 'hormones' in the last sentence just took me on a half-hour detour, a quick glance on the internet and then into my writing journal. So I have scribbles on hormones and being a weird sister which might develop into something. Ideas and poems bursting from little seeds feel more like spring to me than cleaning my windows. That is a job which really should be done so I can enjoy the return of the light, but it probably won't be. My spring poems may have a cat nose- and finger- print filter then. 

All of this new writing energy is in good time for April's GloPoWriMo, a challenge to write a poem or some poetry snippets every day, which I will try to do again. I like that sort of should, a gentle demand of 'be creative, take some time in your day for something you love'.

Publications-wise things are also looking up after a very quiet winter though I'm submitting very little. Some new publications of my work:

I've had a poem published in the current issue of The Brussels Review.

And another poem has been accepted for the spring issue of The Broken Spine. It's currently available for free download. 

The Belfast Review has also published one of my poems in their winter issue.

Enjoy your writing time.