I've written 14 Accident Sonnets, each containing a sonnet's typical 14 lines, and the set ends with one extra coda line. This 14/14/plus-1 frame feels like it could be a final shape. The poems were composed between January 6 and January 21, 2021, the two weeks spanning the putsch and the inauguration. So while they are most definitely personal poems (e.g., [perhaps of interest if you attended my Zoom talk on Tuesday], the "I" character is enacting a voice very close to the poet's, but of course there's rampant dramatizing and fictionalizing to create that illusion), the political situation seeps in everywhere.

Today I'm scheduled to have a Zoom meeting with my painter-collaborator and the organizers of the Art in Common Places project: a check-in to see how the project's going. My feeling is that it's going really well . . . surprisingly well. I've been shockingly productive, and Kathy, my collaborator, has also been painting like crazy. Officially we have three weeks left to work, before our final combined piece is due. That feels like more than enough time to narrow down our choices for public display (the broadside) and to work on revising the whole as a coherent piece.

So a new year, a new president, a new poem cycle. Gosh.