Throwing it all away

I'd never heard of a French Pantoum until I clicked on a comment left by Novel Nymph to check out her blog ... and I saw her French Pantoum and a link which led me to the blog where there's an example of how to do a French Pantoum.

Here is my attempt, "Throwing It All Away":

I threw it all away today
Everything that is no longer what I want
I told them 'Thank You' before doing so
Simply because they had been important to me

Everything that is no longer what I want
Waiting in a bag for the garbage truck
Simply because they had been important to me
I am letting them go

Waiting in a bag for the garbage truck
I told them 'Thank You' before doing so
I am letting them go
I threw it all away today

I had a sudden feeling ... started on Boxing Day and continued yesterday, cleaning out, throwing away the things I don't need and don't use. Some things are easier to discard than others.

On the first day I threw away mainly paper things. The place felt lighter even with those gone.

On the second day, yesterday, I went through the chest of drawers in which I have many things stored (photographs from way back when ... letters, cards, notes and other 'sentimentals' ... tons of newspaper clippings on me/my exhibitions/shows, etc. ... CD masters, passports and other documents, 'poor man's copyrighted registered envelopes from way back when ... elements of past exhibitions of mine: Comments books, clippings, price lists and programmes, etc. ... hundreds of poems from over the years and from when I was in England and my friend Laura and I would 'spell the aura' ... and more). I threw away a few things from all of that. But that needs more organisation and filing than tossing.

I then threw away some more generic things, moved tapes (raw video footage and video masters) from the bookshelf to storage boxes, cleaned out drawers where I kept work-related items, ripped old documents, etc..

I also took books and packed them aside to give to friends who would appreciate them. E.g. a friend's little daughter who just got a camera for Christmas and is taking photos of everything will get some photography books; a friend I'm meeting later to discuss a screenplay he wrote will get some spiritual books, etc.; a friend who teaches Literature and dreams of being a published writer will get the more literary books: Rumi, Hemingway, etc. A friend who is an esthetician will get a stack of interesting magazines for her clients to browse through.

I packed up most of my CDs (even my favourite Bjork collection), to give to friends who will love them. I just kept my original CDs, my yoga CDs, some software CDs and my ABBA Love Stories CD (the latter was actually the soundtrack for my cleaning-and-throwing-away process).

There is a lot more that can still go and it will go in time - potentially by the end of this year. But for now, there is a lot more space and the feeling of lightness (literally and figuratively).

Less = more.