Next time, I hope I’ll be settled into the routine of the new school year and actually post on Friday! In the meantime, here is my response to Mary Lee’s challenge to “use Next Time, by Joyce Sutphen as a mentor poem for your own Next Time poem.” Seems pretty straight forward, right? I had to make a conscious effort not to revisit every past mistake, real or perceived, to keep my own “Next Time” poem from devolving into a laundry list of guilt and shame.

So here instead is a gentle reminder to myself. Maybe you need it, too.

Next time
I wander into the wild,
I’ll leave my watch
at home.

I’ll slip into shadows
of oak and pine
with only the sun
to mark my passage.

I’ll leave my worldly cares
on the threshold of a place
where time grows slow,
recorded  in years, not seconds.

I’ll breathe in the patience
of rocks and ferns
and remind myself to just
be.

Draft @ 2024, Catherine Flynn

Please be sure to visit my fellow Inklings to read their responses to Mary Lee’s challenge:

Linda @A Word Edgewise
Mary Lee @Another Year of Reading
Molly @Nix the Comfort Zone
Margaret @Reflections on the Teche
Heidi @my juicy little universe

Then hear over to Buffy Silverman’s blog for the Poetry Friday Roundup.