Thursday, April 15, 2021

New Beginnings

Hello and welcome to this week's poetry post and New Beginnings. Sometimes a poem suggests itself to me immediately, and other times I search and search but nothing seems quite right. And then there are the times when a friend sends you the perfect one. That is what happened this week when thoughtful commenter Becky forwarded 7 Poems to Read This Spring from The Atlantic. (If you think I'm including the link as a way to give you seven poems in one post, you might be right.) 

Kym said she was thinking about spring, but I especially love this poem because to me it includes many types of New Beginnings — spring, the end of an awful winter, maybe some hope as more people get vaccinated and we can meet for coffee (or at the ice cream truck), and my fervent hope for New Beginnings for all of us with someone, somehow.


Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota
by Hieu Minh Nguyen

Even though it’s May & the ice cream truck
parked outside my apartment is somehow certain,
I have a hard time believing winter is somehow,
all of a sudden, over — the worst one of my life,
the woman at the bank tells me. Though I’d like to be,
it’s impossible to be prepared for everything.
Even the mundane hum of my phone catches me
off guard today. Every voice that says my name
is a voice I don’t think I could possibly leave
(it’s unfair to not ask for the things you need)
even though I think about it often, even though
leaving is a train headed somewhere I’d probably hate.
Crossing Lyndale to meet a friend for coffee
I have to maneuver around a hearse that pulled too far
into the crosswalk. It’s empty. Perhaps spring is here.
Perhaps it will all be worth it. Even though I knew
even then it was worth it, staying, I mean.
Even now, there is someone, somehow, waiting for me.

From Poetry magazine, December 2018
You can read more about the poet here.

Be sure to visit Kym, Katand Sarah today to read their New Beginnings poems and join us next week for some humor in poetry!

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful, Bonny. I love the opening... Spring, that great tease of seasons! (I saw snow on Minneapolis news footage this week)

    "Perhaps it will all be worth it." I hope so! Thank you for sharing this moving poem! (and the link to more poetry!)

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  2. Well, I love that ice cream truck, for starters! And the poem is lovely -- though I find I have those same sentiments a month earlier!

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  3. Someone, somehow . . . What a lovely poem, Bonny. Sometimes hope is fickle (like spring. . . ) and it ebbs and flows. I think this poem captures that feeling so well! XO

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  4. Now I want ice cream!! This poet has the same last name as my primary care physician! A good choice Bonny - it is hopeful (though my brother texted me that CO is expecting up to 2' of snow!!!).

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  5. I like the way that poem is hopeful but also ambivalent. And the ice cream truck is the perfect illustration for it.

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  6. I like this one, Bonny. I am always ambivalent about spring and where it leads, and this poem gives me a support for hope. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday, and a great weekend.

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  7. I have many romantic visions of new beginnings in my mind. I hope they all come true! Lovely poem and I love how our little blogging community connects us together!!

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  8. I love how you introduce us to new voices. There is an ice cream truck that visits the park where my sister and I play tennis on Saturdays ... even in the winter months. and it just felt wrong to hear its music when we were bundled up and cold.

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