Observations

Dearest reader:

The aspect of evolution that makes it interesting — as a model of (natural) history, of change, and of being — is that it rejects the following ideas: design, progress, linearity, and conclusion. That is: evolution doesn't assume a pre-existing plan, nor does it assume that a given moment is necessarily an improvement over those that preceded it, or with which it shares its space. It doesn't presume that a particular development is final, that it constitutes a "coming into its own" or a "maturity."

All of this is to say that this blog is undergoing an evolution of sorts. It's beginning was clear, and clearly stated a design. But this design — to write a poem a day for a month — built into itself its own endpoint, which has passed. The blog has exceeded its own purpose, its own plan. And yet it persists.

As good evolutionary scientists, we can't know how this evolution will unfold, and we can't say with any certainty that it improves upon its earlier variety. We can't know if its new traits are evolutionary dead-ends, and we don't know what changes to the environment will alter the blog's needs, or what specific adaptations may be required.

We can only observe; all else is speculation, like staking a claim, or playing the futures market. It's an act of faith I'm not willing to participate in at present — the risk of "OR BUST" is too significant. So we'll stick with observations. We can observe an increase in the number of letters written to you, dear reader, have increased. We can note that the blog's focus seems to be poetics, rather than poetry. And we can observe that the blog no longer presents a new poem every day, though some do persist. They seem to be, for the most part, vestigial. These poems might have no function but to occasionally break when sat upon too hard, or to become inflamed and burst.

I, for one, look forward to that explosion.






ADDENDUM — It is worth note, as part of this report on the state of the blog, that This Cruellest Month is the first Google hit for the following phrases:

- French postcard meaning
- ixnayed and ogled