2021: Prose and Poetry Thoughts

As 2021 draws to a close, I want to reflect in both prose and poetry.

Per every other year, I wish I would’ve written more-I had an initial goal of 100 blogs and I wrote about half. When you’re ‘adulting’, we all know how hard time is to come by.

Here at some posts worth a re-look:

“A New Year, A Capitol Riot” (January 10th)

“The Gunslinger Throws It Into Triple Coverage…Again” (April 18th)

“Mother Gaia’s 51st Birthday Bash” (April 25th)

“Social Media ‘Cooling Off’ Periods” (May 1st)

“It’s Time To Get Poked” (August 8th)

“To Abide Or Not To Abide” (September 26th)

“Pale Blue Dot: The Final Frontier” (October 20th)

“Reeling Eagle Gazes” (October 26th)

“The Sole Way To Respond” (November 25th)

“‘Twas the Covidmas” (December 26th)

Instead of making a ridiculously high goal to make up for lost time as I’m prone to do, I pledge to at least match the number and quality level of posts in 2021, extra credit for going beyond.

As some frequent readers noticed, I did a lot more ‘rhyming and poetry meets news’ pieces as the year went on, as well as delving into non-political topics. In some ways, this was long in the works. I started “The Primacy of Politics” in 2016, mainly doing essay type pieces you’d do in school with looser language and a more playful sense of humor, exclusively focused on politics.

By mid 2020, I had become quite frustrated with the time and effort put into long, data or research driven pieces such as “Capitalism: Diagnosis Critical” about the COVID bailouts and the underwhelming reactions to them relative to the work required-at least in my view-that I decided to have more fun and explore my creative side while blogging. Summarizing important stories and events into rhyming couplets was more synergistic with my novel writing anyway.

A few years ago, I was far more optimistic about the state of American politics and discourse. I often wrote pieces urging for civility and respect, even when being quite satirical, like “Homo Partisanus”. Being a semi-serious student of history, I should’ve remembered that the cycles of unity and division in American society are quite long and division endures longer than our memories permit.

Therefore, realistic goals for 2022, in poetic form:

Regardless of what say talking head yokel

Remember, all politics is ultimately local.

Pass less hours in front of a screen

But rather improving locality’s scene

City and state need citizens, active

So country once again is attractive.