200 blogs, who’s counting?

The first POSTCARD FROM A PIGEON arrived sometime in 2014. That year, I wrote only 32 blogs but it was twice as many as 2015, when I posted a paltry 15. In March, this year, I decided to grasp the nettle and get down to the serious art of blogging.

In March, there were 7 posts, April, 34 and in May, the hottest month in history, apparently, (It must be true, I read it in WordPress http://sparkonit.com/2016/06/17/nasa-declares-may-2016-earths-hottest/) there were 96 posts. This month, June, I’ve slowed down and, so far, there have been 20.

May might be considered an aberration. I began, participated in and completed four blogging university courses and no, I don’t have any badges to say so but I felt it might be useful and save me pressing the big red button that says ‘DO NOT PRESS THIS BUTTON’, because you known that’s the reason why I will.

Then I went away for the best part of a week at the beginning of June, to a wedding in the west of Ireland where I could smell the Atlantic Ocean, eat fresh seafood, drink Guinness, dance, one-legged with a walking stick, listen to the finest Irish traditional music and commune with other sentient beings. So that held me back and it took a while to get back into the rhythm.

Matt Molloy (flute) and Sean Keane (fiddle), both of The Chieftains, in Matt Molloy’s pub, Westport, June 2016

I’ve met some really good people on WordPress, a vehicle I like to think is the thinking person’s social network, read some fascinating articles and poems, page turners, eye openers and head melt – ers, interacted with a whole bunch of engaged and engaging people, committed to what they do, anxious to help and encourage.

WordPress is a community and like all communities, the more engaged you become, the more engaging it becomes. Every few days I dip in the Community Pool, offering advice and friendly criticism. I’ve been known to have a go at daily, weekly and even monthly prompts, be they poetry, words or photos.

There are some things that get my goat and probably always will. I wish there was a ‘save’ button so you could come back and check out something you’ve seen but didn’t have time to read. You could ‘like’ it, I hear you call and I know that but if you ‘like’ too many things and there’s no ‘search’ engine, then the exercise recalls the needle and haystack story.

I don’t like aphorisms or affirmations but that’s just a personal thing. All quotations and aphorisms have their place and function. I’m not a religious person even if you might argue, like the NRA does about guns, that’s it’s not the religion, or the gun, that’s at fault, just the people, the sinners, who use them.

I’m a writer, so that’s what I do, I write. I don’t mind throwing in a couple of photos, here and there, or a poem, even a film, but when you get right down to it, I’m a writer and, as a writer, I want readers because I believe in that symbiotic relationship that writing creates and that I believe, as an art, is a unique relationship. I won’t write what people want to read. I write what I write and if people like it, then I hope they will read it and show their appreciation with a ‘like’ or a comment or, be adventurous, and buy some of my published work.

So far, in the space of 200 posts, almost half of them last month, 2,592 people have dropped by, 5,977 have viewed them and to all those, I am grateful and I hope you will continue to visit, like and comment.

Word Press is not somewhere I go to collect things. I don’t put subscriber numbers out for parade or display them, like trophies.

Word Press is inspirational and vibrant and challenging. These are the attributes I love the best about it. So that’s my sixpence worth which, I believe, is a good deal for 200 blogs. So, here’s to the next 200.