The exercise:
The end of our last weekend in Osoyoos. The end of the first month of the year. Tomorrow Kat will bring the boys to get the keys and move a van-ful of stuff into our new home - mostly kitchen boxes we pulled out of storage yesterday.
A day that seemed so far away in mid-November is now fast approaching.
Write about: don't blink or you'll miss it.
The exercise:
Write a four line poem about: last Saturday night.
Yeah, it's going to be a real subtle week. No apologies, just putting it out there up front.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: signing on the dotted line.
Everything has been signed now, as of this afternoon. We get the keys Monday morning. So we're officially into the lasts now.
Welcome to our last Friday night at Kat's parents house.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: the lawyer.
We finally have an appointment with our lawyer for this Friday to sign the papers that need signing for the completion of that house buying thing we're doing.
Took a lot of phone calls.
A lot.
The exercise:
Write about: one week.
Because we get the keys to our home in one week. Moving day is a week this Friday.
Tickity tockity.
The exercise:
Write about: the dawning of a new day.
I'd say things went as well as anyone could have hoped today.
Well, anybody with a heart. Or brain. Or soul.
Anyway. Onward and upward, America.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: vigilance.
No idea what to expect down south tomorrow, but I will hope for the best.
The exercise:
The yearlong prompts began eight (!) years ago with Mejaran. Vancouver Irrealis followed in 2014, with The Colony hot on its heels. Then came House of Mercy in 2016, The Dream Kingdom in 2017, and Empires in 2018.
I switched things up in 2019 with The Yearlong Poem before being utterly unable to avoid the yearlong pun of Hindsight in 2020.
Now that 2021 has arrived, Greg is bringing us back to something that began on the site where we first met, the now defunct Protagonize. Below he's provided a synopsis of what we're in for and he'll follow that with the first entry.
Though, to be fair, I've given him no warning whatsoever that I'm posting this tonight, so I hope he's got an article ready to go!
Also: I'm quite looking forward to joining in on this, as I never contributed to the original story.
Anyway. Without further ado, allow Greg to introduce those of you who may be unfamiliar with it to: The East Wallingford Gazette.
Synopsis:
The East Wallingford Gazette was the inspiration of its Chief, and only, Editor Archi_Teuthis and launched itself on Protagonize during the site's heydey. Many of the regulars on Protagonize took the opportunity to volunteer as journalists for the paper and the small town of East Wallingford, its competitiveness with West Wallingford, and its somewhat dysfunctional political system were explored through an expanding series of articles.
The Gazette championed East Wallingford at every opportunity, remarking on how its fire service rescued cats, reporting on sporting events with West Wallingford, and charting the dismal progress of Mayoral candidate Milton Stilton and his ongoing court case against his parents for his name. There was nothing too small or insignificant for the Gazette to send out a reporter and find more details of, and it was a veritable journalistic light in the modern media darkness.
When approached for comment, Editor in Command Archi_Teuthis said only that she felt that passing control over to Eloosive placed the paper into secure hands and that she expected the high journalistic standards to be maintained, and that labour relations were no longer her problem and she would continue not paying contributors for as long as she lived.
The exercise:
Write four lines of prose about: when all the colours turn to gray.
The exercise:
Soooo... just noticed the last two days got labelled 2020. Yesterday I think was understandable, considering how distracted I was. But the day before... I got nothing.
Anyway. Write about: the wilderness.
The exercise:
Write about: a riot.
Yeah, I don't know. A sad day south of the border, obviously. Not exactly unexpected. But sad. And scary.
Hard to see what comes next after something like this.
The exercise:
Write two haiku about: a power outage.
Power went out at work this afternoon, but not until there was about half an hour left in our day. Not sure if we would have got to go home early if it had gone dark closer to lunch, but I like to think that's what would have happened.
So mostly it was just a nuisance.
The exercise:
Work today wasn't too bad. A lot of stuff piled up over the break, as is to be expected, but by the end I was essentially caught up. More or less. Ish.
Write about: the rift.
The exercise:
Back to work tomorrow. Not especially looking forward to it, as the time off seems to have vanished while I was looking the other way.
Write about: in search of lost time.
The exercise:
The first Saturday of the new year has arrived already. You taking a break from the epic poems this year, Greg?
I guess we're about to find out.
Write a four line poem about: a ghost town.
The exercise:
Happy New Year!
Let's get 2021 off to a positive start by writing four lines of prose about: hopes and dreams.
