Renewal is in the air

By Barry Vitcov

The New Year does not always happen on January First. This week begins the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah. Whatever New Year you might celebrate … Chinese, Islamic, Hindu, Persian, Vietnamese, or another … a new year generally marks a season of renewal, a time to reflect, a time to think about intentions, a time to resolve, a time to hope.

Debora Gordon and Lisa Baldwin offer poems that invite us to think about what any New Year might mean to us, our friends and families, and the earth we all share.

Intentions for Today and the Rest of the Year Along the Way

By Debora Gordon

My goal is to set goals
To decide my roles
In this time, so strange
I think I can still arrange
With the advantage that comes with retirement
Or as I think of it, re-wire-ment
Every day belongs to me
Not to the admin of some office lackey I cannot see

And really whether it’s Thursday, Sunday
Saturday or Monday
I can do what I want
I can use any font
The day of the week no longer matters
I can turn off any useless chatters
If I should happen to choose
Or maybe I will join in and cruise

This is the year
To proceed without fear
I have everything I need
A home, a pension, I can even afford weed
I will draw and I will write
I resolve to never fight
Which does not mean I will not take a stand
I just mean I will extend a friendship hand
Even when I’m kind of aghast
Of ideas that should be left in the past

And I will focus on my health
Because otherwise, illness can be stealth
And also the climate, every bee and every bird
Because everyone knows Mother Earth has the last word
The first moment of every day will be meditation
For the good of myself and all of creation
I want to tread lightly and with thought
And appreciate the things in life that cannot be bought
Every moment, I am grateful
And try to choose actions that will not be fateful

I know I am lucky in many ways
And disappointments are just a phase
If I can love and live
And offer what I have to give

Then I think this new year 2025
Will offer a new chance to thrive
On what it means to be alive
And not for stuff, but goodness I will strive
With each and every move
I will try to be in my groove
So, all my friends and those on Earth
May this year be one of rebirth
And when we meet in 2026,
I hope we will continue to look at what we can fix
Happy New Year to one and to all
Rock this year and have a ball!

Debora Gordon is a writer, artist, educator and non-violence activist who recently moved to Ashland from Oakland, California. Born and raised in New York, she attended San Francisco State University, majoring in Fine Arts, later traveling around the world, and teaching English in Japan, and later teaching high school and adult school for nearly 30 years in the Oakland Unified School District. She has been published in Oakland Voices and is currently also freelancing for Ashland.news. She also facilitates an English language conversation group for Ukrainians who have relocated here, in addition to a writing group, and will teach a class at OLLI for the first time this spring.

Lesson from the Anthropause

By Lisa Baldwin

It was March 11, 2020, when the pandemic shut down the world. People parked their cars, stayed home, sheltered in place and waited. What they were waiting for was never clear. This mostly voluntary retreat reined in human activity so tightly, so utterly, that in a few weeks’ time the cumulative evidence of our decades of filthy living eased up a bit. After six months of human lock-down, the air cleared; for the first time in forty, fifty years, city skies were blue again; forested blue-green mountains form half-circle bands around the sprawl of suburbs and small wooded tracts, yet this scenic vista is familiar to only the oldest generation, those with memories that pre-date smog. To see how quickly the environment could recover gave a fleeting glimpse of hope to those with no memories of a healthy planet Earth. What a brilliant nugget to be found near the peak of a global pandemic. Simply constraining human activity revived the world. Sea turtles thrived. White-tail deer wandered through an empty Times Square. Ornithologists recorded common birds, like house sparrows, singing new songs, no doubt a sparrow discussion of the loveliness in this new unpeopled world.

Exquisite Planet
will heal herself when we stop
adding to her wounds

Lisa E Baldwin, a fifth-generation native Oregonian, has lived in the Lower Applegate Valley since 1966. Baldwin taught English in Grants Pass for 30 years, retiring in 2015. Currently, as owner of N8tive Run Enterprises, she works as a poetry evangelist—writing and publishing poetry, organizing and teaching poetry workshops, spreading the good news of the poetry world, and encouraging others to write as an act of art. In early 2025 Baldwin and fellow poet Seth Kaplan teamed up and created Poetry for the People, a series of poetry readings and open mics at various venues in Jackson and Josephine counties. The series wraps up with one more gathering in August and a “re-gathering” celebration in September. Baldwin’s first book of poetry, Truths and Consequences, was published in 2021, and her second poetry collection, Jerome Prairie Creation Myths and other Farm Tales in 2023. Books may be ordered through your local bookstore, or off the shelf (or special order) at Oregon Books in Grants Pass, or by emailing the publisher, [email protected] . Contact the author by email at [email protected]

Poetry Submissions Welcomed!

You are invited to submit original work to the Poetry Corner. There is only one restriction: Poems ought to show a connection to Ashland and/or Southern Oregon. Your interpretation of that connection is fairly loose and mine is probably even looser! Be sure to include the title of your poem, your name as you would like it to appear, the city or town in which you reside, and, if you wish, your preferred pronouns. Finally, please submit a bio statement of less than 150 words written in the third-person.

To submit poems, send to Barry Vitcov at [email protected].