I Hope that in this Year to Come, You Make Mistakes

Photo: Erik Rittenberry

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a great holiday season.

I’m not into resolutions or that silly “new year, new me” lingo but I do recognize what a privilege it is to be alive in these chaotic times.

I know the future doesn’t look too appealing but I believe that in spite of the erratic circumstances of the world, each one of us still has the capability of carving out a poetic life rooted in joy and simplicity. I think it was Sartre who once said: “There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.”

Indeed, it is.

I think our aim should be to not merely exist, but to LIVE. To be madly alive with all our senses heightened. And I think that books, great books, can be a guide toward achieving this lively way of being.

Great books provide us with the necessary fire and light and help us gaze at the world with a more perceptive eye.

It was the literary critic, Harold Bloom, who once reminded us: “The great poems ... teach us how to go on living, even when submerged under forty fathoms of bother and distress ... Your own mistakes, accidents, failures and otherness beat you down. Rise up at dawn and read something that matters as soon as you can.”

Anyway, I wanted to ring in the new year with a beautiful passage from the English writer, Neil Gaiman. I hope you’ll find these words as soul-nourishing as I do. Thank you for following this page. I really appreciate you all being here and sharing my passion for art, literature, and poetry.

Let’s get to it.

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I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

― Neil Gaiman

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Poetic Outlaws has a new shop! Nothing big. Just a few T-shirts and some coffee mugs. People seem to like the logo and I’ve had many requests for some shirts/mugs showcasing it. Anyway, here it is. Thanks for all the support.