2018 Sojourning

It is the custom of journals – whether online or print – to reflect on the passing year. 2018 has been a very odd year. Or at least that is what crops up in the many conversations I have had with friends. It matters not what their age – it has felt like a year of stop and start, retracing steps. Getting things done or make happen has felt like drawing an impacted wisdom tooth tied to a string on an open door. The door just won’t shut. Except now the year is drawing to a close. The door will close and swing open for 2019.

But it is also a time to look over what has been accomplished and to puzzle over the surprises therein. I have looked at my 2018 WordPress stats and here are the five most read poems in 2018. And they are very varied in content and style.

• “Freezer Spell”, posted in April during NaPoWriMo, was the most viewed
• “Collateral Damage” in the Remembrance Day post Selective Memory was two views behind
• “The Unsolved Mysteries of the Multiverse” came in third on a 4th February post It’s a Mystery
• “Tree Of Life” was two views behind in fourth place
• “Little Fugue in Glastonbury” written in April’s NaPoWriMo is in fifth place during my sojourn of the sacred sites of SW England

Check out the archives and leave a comment. Many eyes can create a clearer vision. I cannot see a thematic connection or style that unites them. Which is a problem I need to solve in 2019.

On the Sojourning part of the blog there was a clear front runner in the March post “Weaving Art in the Geopark”, relating the EU Peace IV funded arts project run with my creative colleague, Morag Donald. Time with a Canadian client in May was recorded in “Turtle Tours on Turtle Island.” In third place was “Soul Journeys”, posted in the March archive. As I age and my knees creak, my tour guiding is more strolling with creating and writing (and eating some of my home baked cake).

Plans for 2019: I will continue with the Poetry Daily for as long as I can – even if it is just a haiku or senryu. What I hope for in 2019 is that I find a mentor/editor, who can help me wrestle these poems and those tucked away in my laptop from previous years, into a collection. My creative colleague, Helen Shay, has also raised the possibility of a further collaborative collection to follow our early Noughties “Binary Star.”So, keep reading this blog for further poetry developments.

Thank you all, readers and repeat visitors to this blog. Your encouragement keeps me at it. Most of you live in the USA and Ireland and UK.(Well, that figures! I’ve lived in all of them and have loyal friends there!) But I am repeatedly surprised by the number of repeat visitors from India and Canada, South Africa, Australia, and Switzerland. I don’t even know people living in some of those countries!

May you all flourish with your own creative plans. Spread the love and the art! Let your soul speak.

May it be a Happy New Year.

Featured image Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash