New Pages

The eagle-eyed among the handful of readers of my blog will notice the addition of two more pages down the left hand side; My Poetry, & My Fiction (It's all me me me down that left hand side - maybe I'll remove all the "My" to make me sound less egoistic. Maybe). I went through all my posts of the past years in order to create anthologies of sorts, where all the poetry and fiction I have written may now be accessible on one page, sorted in reverse chronological order.

It was quite a trip down memory lane to read all that I've written over the past few years, some of which was enjoyable, and some of which was less so. It was tempting to leave out stuff that may have been too raw, as I first started to write poetry and fiction, or where my technique was nowhere near as refined it is now, or where perhaps my stories and poetry reveal more of myself than I would like to be revealed. Nevertheless, they're all here - all the poems and fictions I've ever written.

Reflections on looking back:

• Without sounding boastful, I am really, really happy (proud even?) of some of the stuff I've written in the past. Alhamdulillah, I have a way with words, and it shows, and I am grateful also to have something to show for it. It was in the idea of leaving an asterisk next to the poems and fictions that I particularly liked that made me realise exactly how many pieces I like. Of course, me being the writer, I fully admit that I may have a bias towards my own work.
• Leading on from the first point, you (referring to anyone here, nobody specific) will probably end up liking what I write (again, not trying to be boastful). I'm not sure how I feel about that - as a writer I might be pretty good, but I am all too aware of my flaws as a person.
• People come and go; there have been a lot of people in the past couple of years who have found my blog, visited regularly for a few months/years, left a comment or two along the way, and then disappeared (I've left comments as they are, and not deleted any, so a perusal of the comments left on my posts will illustrate my point). That's life I guess. I can only expect that in a few years time the current handful of regular visitors and comment-leavers on my blog will no longer or rarely visit, and a new crop will have taken their place. Either that or nobody will read my blog. I am ok with either scenario; life is life, and whilst I do like it when people read and comment on my blog, I fully accept that said people have plenty of better things to do than read the random musings of an internet stranger.
• I've written a _lot_ of poetry. A very large amount over the years. Alhamdulillah. I daren't yet call myself a poet, but I would never have believed that I could have written so much over the past coupe of years. Again, Alhamdulillah. 
• My output over the past couple of years has markedly dropped. That's fine by me;  I've been extremely busy over the past year. Maybe I'll write more fiction & poetry over the next few years, maybe I won't. The ideas and fragments are still there, but now it's all about finding the time to write. I definitely do want to write more. I've revived my blog (somewhat) over the past month and a bit, so I have been able to find a little extra time, and this portents well for the future, inshaAllah.
• I think that's it. This final bullet point is extraneous. I just wanted to have 6 bullet points.

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With warm duas. This is likely my last post for 2013, unless I come up with something I absolutely _have_ to write.