This Fresh New Year

This year, I will plant potatoes
when oak leaves are the size of mouse ears
as my grandfather did long ago

I will still plant pea pods on the first of April
as there is something ironic about planting peas
that make no little round peas
which I detest. April Fools!

I will read the garden catalogs
with great care
they come earlier now - as if climate change
somehow has altered all of life.

I will circle my choices for this coming year 
praying they can bear heat and drought
or maybe torrential rain to fill rivers and lakes.

I will watch for magnolia's buds to swell
the ones that almost bloomed this belated fall
and watch apricot blossoms  float downward
frustrated squirrels wait to plunder
the small green apricots before they are ripe.

I will write more
for it grows my soul
never knowing what words
will emerge upon the page.

I will read more, other writers
teaching me their skills
so I can discover more rules to break

And I shan't make
a single New Year's resolution
for all these are promises
as I kiss this new year awake.