Wishing I was Italy-- New Poems on the Web at Mediterranean Poetry

Photo of Manarola, Cinque Terre, Italy: the town in the first poem

And I learned not to regret
the little things that changed me—

~

I have a couple new never-been-seen before poems on the web today at Mediterranean Poetry.  It's a lovely website that focuses on poetry around (well, you might have already guessed it), The Mediterranean.

I like these poems because they were written several years ago by me and they seem to have a quieter voice.  I like their softness.  -- I know this might seem strange to write, but it's odd looking at my older poems and seeing the poet who wrote them is not-quite-myself.  There is a distance and yet, I remember that poet and what she was thinking.

I think that is the beauty of time in poetry and in looking at one's own work at a later date.  We are not pulled by the immediacy of the poem, but instead can determine its merits based on our knowledge and less on emotion.  We love our newest darlings best sometimes.  Adding a few years to a poem allows one to really see it for itself, its craft, own art and again, less on the content of what we are writing about.

It was a great experience diving through my old poems to find something on the Mediterranean.  While doing that, I found a lot of other interesting poems I had forgotten about and moved them into my New Work folder for revision.

Reading my old poems made me want to return to Italy.  In fact, I haven't been able to get Italy out of my mind...