Trying Not To Blink: A Poetry Collection

by Eric Nixon

  To sort things out

  The heavy things

  That needed mental heft

  To get in place

  The unspoken thoughts

  That should be brought to light

  To free the space

  The waylaid plans

  That needed a serious revision

  To map my route

  Instead I was rewarded

  With a blank mind

  Focusing on nothing

  Finding myself approaching

  A place I had not intended to go

  But still scarily familiar

  Because I’ve been here before

  I don’t want to go there

  In thought or otherwise

  !Gunshots! – One! Two!

  Smash the windy silence

  Halt the inward stridence

  Three! Four! Five!

  Hunters far too close

  Killing their prey

  Turning, I change my course

  With the need for self-preservation

  Fully forefront in my mind

  I walk briskly from dirt to pavement

  Where I realize

  The universe

  Had just given me

  The answer I sought.

  I file it down deep

  And head home.

  December 26, 2012

  Benson, Vermont

  This one came about from a combination of listening to “All At Once” by Pete Yorn on repeat and going for a walk in early December. I supplanted the feelings and thoughts from the song to what I witnessed while on my walk that day. This had been sitting in Line Ideas for a while, so I added to and finished it.

  Light Fluff

  Cold winter day

  Window looking

  Watching the white

  Light fluff

  Go nuts in the wind

  Falling sweeping

  Spinning twirling

  Like motes of dust

  Dancing in a fanned room

  December 27, 2012

  Benson, Vermont

  Swirly Blur

  Sitting here

  In the midst

  Of another

  Time where

  The colors

  The sounds

  Are working

  In concert

  Are working

  Together and

  Forming a

  Swirly blur

  In the style of

  Monet, Manet

  And all their

  Contemporaries

  But in a less

  Museum-like

  Sterile setting

  And more of

  A living alive

  Kind of way

  Reinforcing

  The feeling

  I get when

  The world’s

  All about the

  Good things

  Life has to

  Offer and gives

  Back in the

  Best way

  Possible

  December 28, 2012

  Benson, Vermont

  I’ve had the phrase “swirly blur” in Line Ideas for a few days and have been wondering what I could do with it. By the looks of it, I could do something thin and impressionistic with that phrase.

  Re-Living The Moment

  …Re-playing

  The event and

  Re-living

  The moment

  On repeat

  All the time

  Like I shouldn’t do

  Because it gets

  Me distracted,

  Gets in the way

  Of living

  In the present

  But I can’t help

  Myself from

  Re-playing

  The Event and

  Re-living

  The moment

  On repeat

  All the time…

  December 28, 2012

  Benson, Vermont

  Sometimes I think about things too much.

  Ending It

  Sometimes the wall

  Comes at the right time

  Take the case of 2012

  We are currently

  Properly positioned

  To be ending it

  As we wind down

  This current year

  And are getting ready

  For the next one

  Full of optimism

  Brimming with good plans

  Bursting with potential.

  So yes, I am fine with the date

  And the time left in 2012

  Because I am moving forward

  Full-on focused and

  Readily obsessed with 2013

  To the point where

  I can hit the calendar running

  And not look back

  December 31, 2012

  Benson, Vermont

  See you next year!

  Thank you for reading Trying Not To Blink!

  To find out about upcoming works by Eric Nixon, sign up for the email list at EricNixon.net.

 

  Other works by Eric Nixon

  Poetry Collections

  Anything but Dreams

  Lost In Thought

  Fiction

  Emily Dickinson, Superhero – Vol. 1

  Short Stories

  Incident on the Hennepin

  Retribution on a Jetpack

  Plenty of Time

  About the author

  Photo by Kari Chapin Nixon

  Eric Nixon is an author and poet. He published his first collection of poetry, Anything But Dreams in 2004, which was selected as an iUniverse Editor’s Choice book. In 2011, Garrison Keillor read his poem “Riding the Red Line” on the nationally syndicated public radio program, The Writer's Almanac. He is the author Emily Dickinson, Superhero – Vol. 1 and of several short stories, including Incident on the Hennepin and Retribution on a Jetpack. Eric lives with his family in Vermont where he is inspired by his surroundings and is explores his creativity through poetry, photography, and writing.

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  The Writer’s Almanac: “Riding the Red Line”