Thread: My New Year's Resolution

My new year's resolution?
I will stop cursing.
Instead,
I will say things like,
"What the elf?"
and "Holy craft!"

But who am I kidding?
I don't curse.
At least not
when anyone's around.

So instead I will remain true
to the one thing about me
that will never change.

And that is,
I will always be
full of shift.

Hi vvcarpio

Somehow I don't think you are going to keep that resolution. I had to chuckle at

I don't curse.
At least not
when anyone's around.

maybe change - I don't - to I won't and end the poem there. For me the last two verses took on a different tone and I hated the self deprecation, which isn't anything to do with resolutions.

Hmm, I will have to think long and hard before I can agree. My intention was for the whole poem to be "full of shift". Chopping off where you suggested would lose it. It was meant for fun, unless I wasn't very effective in conveying it.

I think the way to do it is to show the poem is full of shit rahter than tell it.

OK. I thought that's what I was doing.

This one gave me a big chuckle, so thanks for that. always welcome in the a.m.

I think this is very cute and clever. If you dropped the first line, since you don't need it ( the title has done that job for you ) made a few changes to the third and fourth, I think it would suffice to show that you were full of shift, instead of tell. Either way, I enjoyed this playful little poem.

My new year's resolution?

I will stop cursing.
Instead,
I will say things like,
"What the elf?"
and "Holy craft!"

But who am I kidding?
I don't curse.
At least not
when anyone's around.


So instead I will remain true
to the

one thing about me
that will never change.


And that is,

I will always be
full of shift.

Thanks a lot, Gumby. I like your changes. I think they removed passages whose ideas are already there.

Removing the first line actually crossed my mind but I was undecided. I wanted it to be in the form of a question because personally I'm not the type (I think) to step forward and declare my thoughts uninvited. I preferred it to be in the form of a response to some hypothetical person asking me what my New Year's resolution was, so, I'm now wondering if I can include the question mark in the title. I'm thinking it's better off not.

Regarding "I will remain true", I liked to keep it because "true" is such a sweet word and might not normally have any place in a poem "full of shift". So it's like (to me at least) an attempt to mislead the reader into thinking the poem is now about to turn into a nice little thought when actually it quite stayed its course.

In my head, "I will remain true" also makes a 180-degree turn from new year's resolutions which the speaker (me in this case) doesn't care for. It sort of bridges the opposing ideas of making-a-change at the start versus not-making-a-change at the end.

So I guess, I was trying to imply, too, through the poem that New Year's Resolutions are, well, "craft".

Hmm... typing all this makes me now think I may be going overboard with subtlety. I'm starting to think a poem like this only works if you, the reader, already know the type of person I, the speaker, am.

Edit: I forgot to add, originally I had "But who are we kidding" instead of "But who am I kidding" to keep in line with the idea that I am being asked...