Poem 250 – Daily Self-Assessment Tool

Daily Self-Assessment Tool

Answer the following questions truthfully every day before beginning your work.

How old do you feel?
Have you felt lost in the last fourteen days? If so, did you find yourself?
Did you self-isolate and reflect upon your condition for ten days?
Have you come into contact with a person who lost herself? If so, did you share your experiences?

Have you felt any of the following symptoms:

Joy
Fear
Anger
Gratitude
Confusions
Rage
Elation
Hope
Exhaustion
Love

If yes to any of the above, quickly find a mirror, look into it, and smile –
You are not alone

If symptoms persist, self-isolate for 15 minutes and meditate, write in a journal and/or tell someone (including yourself) you love them. If safely possible, embrace.

Poem 250! That’s a big number! That’s a lot of poems, right?! It feels like a lot of poems! I was falling asleep on the chair and I awoke in a sweaty panic: you have to write your poem! A voice hollered at me. It’s been like these past few days…a soft forgetting followed by a startling remembering. Why is that? After 8 months of writing a poem a day? Curious. Very curious. I think it has to do with the time of day that I’m writing the poem. It’s not been first thing in the morning…I think I need to get back into that habit. It’s funny because most mornings I’m up early enough to write a poem…but my mind…my mind has been foggy…heavy…too packed.

In any case, we made it through the first day of school. I may as well have started school myself it all felt so alive in my body: nervous energy, anxious acrobatic animals in my belly…currently, I’m exhausted and will hobble to bed to read 1-4 pages before my eyelids close like a red velvet theatre curtain.

I feel like I’m not telling the deep truths in my daily poems. What does that mean? What am I avoiding? Or…are they just not ready? Because the poetry never stops writing in my head…when I walk, when I drive, when I’m writing other things…the lines of poetry float like black dots in my vision.

Certainly, if I filled out this Daily Self-Assessment Tool today I would have checked yes to all the symptoms. You too?

Huh.

Curious. Very curious.

The night is heaving in with more speed. Maybe that’s what I’m not ready for…the loss of daylight. I don’t know…tomorrow is another day, as my dear Nonna used to say. I’m off to bed to meet tomorrow sooner.