A new year signals a new start, as well as a clean slate. To make motions in keeping that idea alive throughout the coming months, I’m working on paring down the extra and the excess from our home, as well as from this site. Things have been getting too cluttered and constricted, and I want to breathe space and light into this winter, setting the stage for a return to spring. The days are already getting longer, and while summer is still a long way off, it’s nice to hold it in our hearts as we hunker down for the snowy days and nights that are ahead.
Such editing is where the good stuff is produced. I never used to believe in that until I started re-reading some of these posts. It’s easy to drone on and write hundreds of words, all without really saying anything. Sometimes I think the bulk of this site is fluff and nonsense, whimsical filler to pass the time with some minor artistic merit thrown in every once in a great while. There’s something to be said for frivolity and fluff when done in the right manner and at the right time. There’s something more to be said for an economy of words and expression, when a feeling or insight is delivered without fanfare or flash, and the sparse eloquence results in a more focused and intense experience.
Poetry is like that – the grand sweep and sentiment of entire novels encapsulated in a meticulously assembled shortage of words and spaces. As such, poetry has dazzled and confounded me – a genre I can only fully appreciate with the guidance and expertise of a teacher, and something at which I have largely failed in producing myself. It’s deceptively difficult to do well. It’s not a pop song, it’s not necessarily a rhyme, and it can veer so easily into something trite and silly that I’ve refused to take such a dare.
But I appreciate the form, and will strive to translate that to this website in ways that open up the space, expanding its reach and creating the moments of stillness and quiet that allow words to fully unfurl. It’s a bit of an experiment, and mistakes will be made. That’s the beauty of a blog, and in this now-ancient mode of sharing and expression, I shall endeavor to impart a little of this evolution in style.
