Short Explanation:
Things evolve.
Big Long Explanation: The Past
I’ve been writing and posting poems for almost ten years. I started off slowly but soon picked up speed. It seemed to me that I had been holding in all kinds of words for my whole life and finally had the place to say them out loud, here in this blog.
It has turned into a lot of poems. Every one of them important to me. I’ve published a lot of collections in print and accumulated a backlog. Most of the time I have been writing a lot faster than I can post them.
I’ve been posting a poem a day here for almost 2000 straight days. And still I’m posting from all this past work. Recently I went through my records and realized that if I stopped writing, it would still take me about a year to use up the poems. Even more to my dismay, I realize I’ve still got poems from 2017-2018-2019 that have somehow not had their chance to be posted and public.
Oh dear, I said. This has got to be fixed.
Big Long Explanation: The Present
My life circumstances, like everyone else’s, have changed a lot in the last ten years, with the pandemic marking for me a transition into a lot of new ways and routines as I go into what is the last segment of my life. (Hopefully a nice long segment, but I have to be realistic about where things are).
Long story short, in my poetry blog life, I want to get up to date.
First thing: Publish what I’m working on now, not two years ago. All right, I can do that! But…
But what about those poems still in inventory? It seems very important to me that they get some kind of chance to be read – even though they are all part of printed book collections, I want them to be seen here on the blog, too.
So I have decided to finish up the past in batches. In January 2023 I will do the first post along those lines. Each week I will gather a dozen or so of these still waiting poems in one group. If you would like to look them over, that is great – I know it can be a lot of reading. And if you’d rather skip over them, that is fine. I just want the poems to have their public moment.
Second thing: Stop publishing a post every day.
It doesn’t sound like much, but…somehow I got into the routine of doing so, and this never skipping a day has gained a life of its own. It’s getting to me. So…
I am going to skip days. Now I have said it. The end.
Third thing: Project underway…
Last summer, I finished my latest Little Vines book, and I didn’t start a new one. Nor did I write very many new poems. I have needed to settle a number of questions and to prepare for the future in my regular life, and I put my focus on doing that. The only writing I have done falls under a challenge I gave myself to keep writing something every day. It’s added up and I will start posting it in January 2023, however it seems best.
Big Long Explanation: The Future
My goals for my writing now: To be in no hurry. To put words on the page at an easy pace. To reflect. To enjoy. To represent with care the things that matter to me.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads what I write. It means a lot to me that you do.
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
Wishing you all the best in poems, publications, and life in the new year, Claudia!
Thank you. I am ready to start a new chapter. Maybe not much different from the previous, but it’s time to let go of some things and take hold of others. Best to you in the New Year, too, and thank you for being my friend.
You’re so welcome! And thank you for being mine. 💙
I think it is a good thing to shake off the cobwebs of old routines and try new ways of going about things. I look forward to reading all of your work, old and new.
Thank you. Your steadfast support means a lot to me and always has. I hope to be more enjoying and less angsting in all things this year, including my writing.
Been there done that! I wrote on WP from 2007 – 2017 posting daily for 3 years then scaling back to just M-F. When I switched to WP I decided that for the sake of my sanity and to provide me some more time for other things I’d just post M-W-F. And that’s what I’ve done for the most part. Some challenges get an extra post but it made my life easier. Since I’m not looking to have gobs of followers, it doesn’t matter if I post less often… Happy New Year!!
Thank you. I appreciate all your support, today and all the time you have taken to look at my work and to communicate. Happy New Year to you, too!
oops – I was on Xanga from 2007 – 2017…
This was actually helpful in understanding your extraordinary output!
Best wishes for doing it just the way that suits you! Batches sounds good. After all – you must not keep that light under the bushel – you will run out of bushels big enough!
I will continue to read the batches and singles and whatever in bursts! But always with pleasure and appreciation.
And this sounds like a wise aspiration: “To be in no hurry. To put words on the page at an easy pace. To reflect. To enjoy. To represent with care the things that matter to me.”
Yay!
Thank you so much for your support, both now and in the past. I hope to develop some new routines that will work and I’ll just have to see how it goes. I think sometimes you have to make a break with the past in order to get new thoughts and ideas room to come out.