Two entries from a poet's calendar use similar forms and language to engage with matters very grand and very small
Anne Cluysenaar's recent collection, Touching Distances: Diary Poems is a poet's calendar, framed by the Decembers of 2010 and 2012. Each "entry" is headed by a date, sometimes with an additional subtitle. All consist of four unrhymed quatrains. The occasions encompass dreams, memories, visits with friends, anecdotes about the birds and animals on the writer's Usk Valley smallholding, and despatches from the wider world.
Out of 75 poems, 50 record the deep winter months, December, January and February. I've chosen two of my favourite winter poems, January 1 and January 13. Despite the shared season, they convey the lively-minded variety of Cluysenaar's inspirations. Both are from the 2012 segment of the book.
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