This week marks a series of significant milestones. Although mostly personal, they certainly influenced my professional life in myriad ways.
Saturday marks the end of my first
year in quarantine. I have not stepped over my own threshold for 365 days. Three of my pandemic poems --
Normal Life, Essential Services, and
Times that Try -- were published in print and another,
Human Concerns, was selected for the fourth annual Parks & Points & Poetry 2020 poetry series. I've submitted several more written during this year of lockdown for consideration and the pandemic crept into other works.
Although unable to leave my home, I watched hours upon hours of video showing demonstrations in Portland and around the globe and wrote thousands of words about politics, protests, press, and police brutality, many of which you can read on
The Big Smoke and all of which you can find on my
blog.
Today also marks
ten years since I warned that
"last night the end started" in a poem, "March 10, 2011", published on
protestpoems.org. Unfortunately, instead of getting angry and fighting against the fascist takeover, comfort and complacency sent us hurtling toward the abyss that swallows us today.
Sunday marks
25 years since I arrived in Oregon, the tenth state where I've lived (the only one where I've spent more than ten years and that wasn't consecutively), location of four of the 18 cities/towns where I've made a home.
While here, I closed my first business, worked for the
Corvallis Gazette Times,
Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments, and
Hewlett-Packard, began my fiction and poetry writing career, and managed two other businesses.
Thank you for coming along for the ride. Hang on tight, it's getting bumpy. Wear your mask, wash your hands, stay home as much as possible, and stay as safe as you can.
To those who took the time to fill out my survey last month, thank you!
The vast majority of you preferred I send the newsletter embedded in an email, so I will continue doing so. The new service, however, means simpler layouts, but I think those will be easier to read for some of you (and they certainly will be less time consuming for me to produce).
Email a link to the newsletter page on the website was almost everyone's second choice. Just remember, I always post a copy of the newsletter on the website and you can find the link at the top where it asks "Having difficulty seeing this page?"
