Monday, August 31, 2015

Curator's Note: The End is Beginning


Friends,

With great reluctance I have decided to end this project at the close of 2015. It has been delightful, these past three years, sharing the poetry and companion art with you all; delightful as well, corresponding with you. A Year of Being Here and its ever-growing community of readers have blessed my journey in ways I never anticipated. I will do my best to make these last months a gift to you, with deep bows of gratitude.

An incredible number of you have been donating to the maintenance of this project. Your generosity has been unbelievable, and humbling. I bow to you. But please know that the expenses of my "hobby project" will easily be met through the end of the year. There is no longer a need for your "pennies in the tip jar." I encourage you to channel your resources to where there is real need.

In that spirit, I have removed the tip jar from the Year of Being Here website.

I also wish to apologize to those poets whose submitted poems I won't be able to post before A Year of Being Here concludes. Please don't be discouraged. Keep writing and seeking an audience for your work. I bow to you.

I bow to all of the poets and artists who, knowingly or not, have helped to make A Year of Being Here what it has become. And I bow to you readers, who have been the project's raison d'être. May you thrive on its poetry and art between now and the New Year. And may you continue to thrive, mindfully, on poetry and art long after it's gone.

Let us always be where we are.


Deep peace,

Phyllis Cole-Dai
Project Curator



11 comments :

  1. Oh, I am sad to hear this. I hope the website will continue so that I can go back to it and also point others to the beautiful work you have done.
    thankyou thankyou thankyou

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    1. As I was sad to have to say it, Lyn. But yes, I'll keep the website up as a sort of online anthology, as long as I can. Thankyou thankyou thankyou for having been among our community of readers.

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  2. Thank you, thank you for AYOBH, Phyllis! Everything comes and goes, and change = now-ness.

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  3. This has become one of my favorite gifts of each and every day! I will miss it and our Friday morning contemplative group will miss the conversation, silent and vibrant, around the art and poetry you have so generously shared with all of us. You will be missed. Enjoy the road ahead!

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    1. Many thanks to you and your contemplative group. I hope that you will continue to look to art and poetry for reflection, inspiration and more. I appreciate your good wishes. May they flow back to you.

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  4. I, too, have enjoyed your work tremendously and shared many of the poems with family and friend. Thank you for all the time and effort you spent giving us this gift. You will never know how far your influence has ranged or how many lives you have enriched. I will look forward to the coming months with a certain poignancy and hope that wherever life's journey takes you, you will look back on this time and know how much your thoughtful, compassionate choices have meant to so many of us.

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    1. Another dear note! Thank you so much. I'm glad you have enjoyed the poetry and shared it with loved ones. Beauty and wisdom, in all their forms, ripple ripple ripple ....

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    2. Beautifully expressed for all of us, thank you.

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  5. I am sad to hear this but I understand. I have thoroughly loved this and always clip my favourite poems I discovered on this site to Evernote so I can go back to them whenever I want. Thank you for all your work and for hosting this site. All the best.

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    1. You're welcome, Britta. I hope you find more poems to clip in these remaining months. :) Deep peace....

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