I am changing Wednesdays again. I have abandoned the contest on All Poetry because I am not enjoying it. Plain and simple. There is an increasing amount of what I don’t like about the world on that medium, as there is everywhere accessed by a keyboard and screen. There is also less, much less, good writing, no matter the ideological bent of the muse. I am blaming the admission of AI earlier this year, though if I am honest, the quality was going down before that. Too much juvenile emotion. Not enough craft or meaning. But mostly I am just tired of trying to keep up with it. It is a burden, not a joy. And I am definitely in burden-shedding mode.
I have also abandoned the Things to Look Forward To for the remainder of the year. I looked through my writing calendar and just wasn’t inspired to write about any of it. This may be the problem with long-term planning… By the time you get to implementation, you are often a different person. You’ve had intervening and sometimes life-changing experiences anyway. If you haven’t, then you may not be living very much…
So… I think I will try something more like the initial intention of Wednesday open posts. Not that my posts are closed the rest of the week… (Though some days I feel like shutting down that hot mess… might be another unburdening here soon…) But this is a day that I don’t want to write much. I want to give you a word and let you do something with it. Either in the comments, or, better, in your life. Think about it. Define it for yourself. Engage with it. Do something with it.
It also does not necessarily mean poetry, though I do like poetry… alliteration and internal rhyme and chanting rhythms… even rambling prose poems. Maybe especially rambling prose poems. But with lots of double meaning and word play and allusion. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean.
Sometimes I will post my own poetry, because I do find these word prompt exercises useful. They make me think and thinking often runs to poetry in my brain.
And occasionally I might post a “life is a mortal disease: discuss in less than 250 words” college entry essay prompt. Because I’m goofy like that.
Today, I’m in hiding though. It is winter. We just had an election. I am writing this before it is over, so I still don’t know whether to exhale or run, though it is leaning heavily toward run. No junior philosophy queries today. I am not up to it. I suspect most of you are not either. So here is the word for the week…
Wednesday Word
for 6 November 2024
hibernate
What does that mean to you? Do you think about it at all? Does it affect your life? How? Chew on it a bit. You can respond below or just take it with you today. Maybe respond later. I would find that most diverting!
©Elizabeth Anker 2024
By My Solitary Hearth 
Our winters are not cold enough for long enough to cause hibernation here. On the personal front though, chilly days send me (happily retired) into a kind of hibernation that makes a book and a blanket seem much more attractive than going out or even to garden. Occasionally too, I ‘hibernate’ from people: happily withdraw from society for a short while and take stock of myself, emerging feeling more refreshed and ready to face the things / people that had seemed so awful before. Hibernation is a word that exudes peace, warmth, solitude and a sense of fulfilment to me.
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Part of me wants to hibernate for the next 4 years, wake me up when it’s over. But It won’t ever be over, just different.
On the seasonal level, hibernation means slowing down, drawing in, “nesting,” being quiet, taking time to rest and gather energy for the next growing season. Also, dreaming.
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The Winter of Our Souls
***********
The human species has reached
the winter of its soul.
The well spring of evolution
now billions of years come and gone.
The summer of abundant growth
morphed into a hard fall,
as the threads of life
unravel from the fabric of life.
Wasn’t it enough
to have lived in the garden,
to once have been fully a part,
of the glorious dance of life,
to live wholly as an animal?
Having forsaken what is needed
only for what we want.
A wasteland of desire and suffering
traded for a bit part
in the schemes of the rich
and empty promises
of those who rule
for and over us.
How then shall we go on?
In this world of diminishing returns,
maybe it is the season
to return to the bear within,
to reduce our consumption,
and species metabolism, and excrement.
To once again dream
of a future long ago
and a paradise lost
in the hibernation of our souls.
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Could humans hibernate?
Hibernation allows many animals to time-travel from difficult times to plenty. Could humans learn how to do it too? aeon.co/essays/how-animals-learned-to-hibernate-and-why-we-cant-do-it-yet
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