journal notes

One of my goals with this blog is to review my handwritten notebooks over the years, and save a few thoughts here.

I also need more room in my paper files, and would like to be able to manage with the file cabinets I already have.

Today I rediscovered a small notebook from 2007 – 2008. It is a record of my correspondence with family, friends, and editors. This I will save.

I had forgotten that an older neighbor told me at the grocery store that my early chapbook, And So My Soul, still blesses her. I reprint poems from over the years online too. I will also create posts here with poems from my first chapbook.

And I remember those no longer on earth, as I reread today.

Friends, with whom I am no longer in touch, are mentioned; and I have learned how things change over the years. My mother reconnected with old friends in her old age. And some friendships and efforts have grown consistently. I have not always been able to stay in touch with many people, and/or send work to editors for review. Blogs work so well for me now.

I began with WordPress.com in December 2009.

My primary site is Poems From Oostburg, Wisconsin.

I look forward to sharing from my handwritten journals here, as I rediscover them in my files. I know there are beginnings of poems, quotes, and notes about the seasons.

This is a work in progress, and I will be learning as I post. Thank you.

Ellen Grace Olinger