Baby its cold outside

I keep singing that song in my head. I keep waiting for the heat to end. I am reading “First Loves” a collection of essays, poetry where poets discuss their essential poems, the words that changed them. I have been changed by so many people, voices. Sometimes I fear it is my kryptonite, my ability to change, to become lost. I once had a fight/ discussion with an editor friend who was upset that my style was not constant. Dear God I wondered, I HAVE a style.

Was it Kunitz who talked about how one must read everything than eventually swim back to his or her own words? It is important to know who your essential loves are. It is important to know that sometimes these loves stand in polar opposite of each other. None are less valuable or important. They mark you like a compass: north, south, east, west. Sometimes I exist like that, in points. Sometimes I fall off the page.