A New View of the Old Year

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Tossing out a wall calendar reveals the back with its year of photos in rows.

When I threw out my old calendar, the rows of pictures on the back reminded me of a quilt. My imagination took off and didn’t stop until I had written a poem about a “Calendar Quilt.”

Make me a quilt of calendar photos –
of Maroon Bells with fresh snow,
of the Northern Lights from Denali,
of Machu Picchu at sunrise
and the Great Wall at dusk.

Cover me with the quilt
and I’ll travel in my sleep
to the vineyards of Bordeaux
and the Gurgi mosque of Tripoli,
to Neuschwanstein Castle
and the pillars of Stonehenge.

Let me bury my hands under the sand on Bora Bora,
wiggle my toes beneath the Great Barrier Reef.
Let my shoulder support Mt. Kilimanjaro,
my ribs the vast temple Borobudur.

Add squares with the moon and the Milky Way
and I’ll fly through the galaxy and far beyond
to the secrets of life that lie hidden inside me,

then be home by breakfast.
Please have coffee ready –
I’ll only be gone for the night.

Thank you to my many well-traveled friends whose stories of their adventures helped my imagination fly.

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