One year ago, I launched One Minnesota Crone, broadening the focus I honed at One Minnesota Writer to include other art forms and celebrate mature creative women who are doing exactly what they please.
Thank you for coming along on this journey, celebrating the many gifts that crones bring to the world, and, just maybe, gathering ideas for yourself. Perhaps you’ve even changed your mind about what the word crone really means.
All that said, I wish for you all a 2023 full of whatever you love in the company of whomever you love.
Here’s a poem for this first day of 2023:
I AM GOING TO START LIVING LIKE A MYSTIC by Edward Hirsch Today I am pulling on a green wool sweater and walking across the park in a dusky snowfall. The trees stand like twenty-seven prophets in a field, each a station in a pilgrimage--silent, pondering. Blue flakes of light falling across their bodies are the ciphers of a secret, an occultation. I will examine their leaves as pages in a text and consider the bookish pigeons, students of winter. I will kneel on the track of a vanquished squirrel and stare into a blank pond for the figure of Sophia. I shall begin scouring the sky for signs as if my whole future were constellated upon it. I will walk home alone with the deep alone, a disciple of shadows, in praise of the mysteries.
– from 180 More Extraordinary Poems for Every Day selected by Billy Collins, New York: Random House, 2005.




– cover image by Geralt at Pixabay.com.
– winter scenes by kcmickelson 2022.
This poem is such a lovely wish for 2023. The last two lines really resonate. 🙂 I wish you the best for 2023.
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Thank you!
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Happy New Year!
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Kathleen, you continue to prove that we crones still have much to say/write. I have always enjoyed your writing. It’s poetic, insightful, uplifting and more. You have a way of wending words that resonates. Keep writing. And happy 2023!
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Thank you so much, Audrey. Happy New Year to you! I look forward to what you have to say – and show us – as well!
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Love that poem, so perfect for this exact day. Or any day. Thank you for your writing, too.
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Thanks, Laura!
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Congratulations on one year! I am happy to have found another crone!
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Hooray!
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I have so enjoyed One Minnesota Crone. You are a gifted writer, and your words often stir emotions in me. Thank you for your perspectives on so many issues from simple to very complex! Happy New Year, Kathleen!
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Thank you so much! I appreciate that and am delighted you’ve enjoyed what I offer here. Happy New Year, Mary!
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Beautiful poem and photos! Happy New Year!
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Thank you and Happy New Year!
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Thanks, Kathleen! A lovely way to start the year!
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Happy New Year, Joanne!
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