{"id":42140,"date":"2024-02-01T21:37:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T02:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/?p=42140"},"modified":"2024-02-01T21:38:02","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T02:38:02","slug":"setting-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/2024\/02\/poetry-in-motion\/setting-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Traffic Info Tune Radio To 1610 AM road sign on winter highway covered with heavy snow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

As I\u2019m sitting here writing this poem it is early January, and this poem will end up in the February issue. We are still a long way from springtime, since winter technically just began a couple weeks ago. But I tend to set certain mental thresholds in my mind, with respect to how much further I have to go to reach a certain goal. It helps me to keep pushing on, and makes the journey not seem so arduous. For example, if I am in Salt Lake City and I\u2019m heading to Seattle, that 830 miles might seem like a daunting task when you consider all the space between the two that needs to be covered. However, if I set little thresholds to reach along the way, then it doesn\u2019t seem so bad. Just get from Salt Lake City to the Idaho line\u2026 easy. Then, just a hop, skip, and a jump from there to the Oregon line at Ontario\u2026 nothin\u2019 to it. Now we have some hills to pull, but it doesn\u2019t take long before you\u2019re dropping down Cabbage Pass into Pendleton, and the Washington State line is technically in your view (if it\u2019s not socked in with fog). Next, it\u2019s just 230 more miles into Seattle\u2026 done! See, that wasn\u2019t so bad. I use the same method to mentally carry me through the winter months that I so passionately despise. Sure, winter just began, but we are now past the shortest day of the year, so that\u2019s one milepost in the rear-view mirror. And the fact that I am currently submitting the poem for the February issue almost gives me that warm fuzzy feeling, too. The next threshold between me and warmer weather\u2026 Shamrock Shakes. When I see those popping up everywhere, I know spring is in the air! But for now, we just have to come to terms with the fact that we are here. Yes, it\u2019s wintertime. And, in my opinion, that\u2019s \u201csnow\u201d fun at all!<\/p>

SNOW FUN AT ALL
By Trevor Hardwick<\/strong><\/p>

I\u2019m in my truck and hunkered down,
The highway\u2019s closed outside of town.
The truck stop lot is packed with trucks,
And I\u2019m down to my last few bucks.<\/p>

Snow keeps falling, wind is cold,
It might last several days, I\u2019m told.
Looks like I\u2019ll be stuck right here,
And I sure hate this time of year.<\/p>

Take me where the sunshine brings,
Life renewed for everything.
The ground hog\u2019s shadow won\u2019t be seen,
Leading to an early spring.<\/p>

Bring on all that warmth again,
When wildflowers fill the medians.
When sunshine rules and rainclouds yield,
And baby cows are in the fields.<\/p>

Show me lots of fancy trucks,
Instead of lots where trucks are stuck.
My left arm\u2019s turning pale again,
I miss the sunburn on my skin.<\/p>

Bring back longer daylight hours,
And warm refreshing thundershowers.
The vapors from the searing heat,
Rising from the asphalt street.<\/p>

All around me, I see snow,
I\u2019d like to leave, but I can\u2019t go.
A brisk stomp through a slush-filled lot,
Just makes me miss when it was hot.<\/p>

A few more weeks, we\u2019re almost there,
When pollen starts to fill the air.
I\u2019ll tell wintertime goodbye, at last,
And snow can kiss my fresh-cut grass!<\/p>

If you like snow, I\u2019ll give you mine,
All it does is make me whine.
Springtime can\u2019t come soon enough,
I\u2019m done with all this frozen stuff!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019m sitting here writing this poem it is early January, and this poem will end up in the February issue. We are still a long way from springtime, since winter technically just began a couple weeks ago. But I tend to set certain mental thresholds in my mind, with respect to how much further<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-poetry-in-motion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42143,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42140\/revisions\/42143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tenfourmagazine.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}