NEW WORLD

"So it is a return to blank pages, which is like a new sail: perfect for a strong wind and clear skies."

—from "The Blank Page: Or, The Death of a Novel" by Ada Ludenow, as found at Hagengard Studio

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"An interesting thing about self-publishing that I hadn’t considered: sometimes you have to actually reject yourself."

"So I’m done with it. I’ll be focusing on starting over, which is something I want to do in other parts of my life as well. Professionally, personally and artistically I am at a nexus. I know I’m not starting over all from scratch and there are things I’ve learned in the last ten or so years that I will keep with me."

—from "Letting the Light In" by David Mecklenburg, as found at Ontological Property

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Any writer would do well to visit and read both of the above blog posts, the first from an author's "alter ego" and Muse, the second from the author himself.

The pieces are about the Janus faces of beginnings and endings (and new beginnings). They are about failure and acceptance. They are about imagination and reimagination. They are about salvage and stories.

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I know David well. He is a fellow writer and a fellow artist. He is also, in a way, a mentor to me. I can say that David and I have "grown up together" as writers and he has influenced me and my writing in ways that neither he nor I could have imagined as we swam off together as small fish after a writing workshop a few years ago. There were indeed other fish that swam with us in Les sardines, but David's voice is the one that I relate to the most. And he and I, of those nine fish, are the two who have put the most energy into trying to publish our own work after most of the school had swam off to pursue other things. We have both continued to try and get our work and our writing out into the world for others to read, for others to explore. We have each built small vanity presses, kingdoms of words, and "gone to battle" alongside one another in an attempt to get our works onto the shelves (digital and brick-and-mortar) of bookstores and into the hands of readers.

So, while these pieces are bittersweet, and, in some sense, difficult for me to read, I understand the need to let this novel go and to mine it for the words and phrases and stories that can enjoy new life in other shapes and forms.

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The two pieces/posts are brave! (So click the above links and read them!)

They come after much reflection and a willingness to move on, to continue to explore and reinvent, and for that I commend David and Ada on their decision.

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And since I seem to find myself in a "Northern"/Norse way once more, I add my own voice in solidarity. Thinking a lot lately of Ragnarök lately, I know that there is a new world that comes after the destruction.

So, here, I reprint the untitled epilogue to my collection of poems, All the Heroes are Dead and Buried, as a tribute to new beginnings, to a new world, as a blessing upon David and Ada and the new work they will create together.

Loki's world
wolf world
jötun world

now gone

cold ice sun
shining upon

a new world
a world of
man and woman