So. An act of self-sabotage or one of self-preservation? Too early to tell.

For anyone stumbling into this page by chance, for eight years I was forgottenworks, which was my twitter-based nom de 'ku, and I had a haiku blog, both of which grew to very respectable readership levels.

Er ... Then I ditched them.

I am now back on twitter but under a different name and not among the poets; and I have this page. I am, at the moment, about as anonymous, invisible, and un-read as it's possible to be.

For most of this year, I have not been in the right frame of mind for writing. Well, we had a lot going on, with J's breast cancer diagnosis & treatment, which all coincided with the build-up to L's school GCSE exams (in which he did tremendously well, by the way, thank you for asking). But in just the last week or two there have been signs of the old enthusiasm returning.

On the off-chance that this blog does develop into something over time, there are a couple of things I'd like to get clear right from the start:

I am not a poet. I don't write poetry. These are not poems, even if they sometimes look that way. Think fragmentary prose instead.

Also, despite the fact that a seven word haiku of mine went off on its own to win a prestigious award, I do not think of myself as a writer at all. I don't write for money or to establish any literary reputation. I don't write in a myriad of different forms and styles. Often, I just don't write.

If I write, it is simply as a by-product of paying attention to whatever small moment may catch my mind's eye during any ordinary day. The word mindfullness makes me slightly queasy, but that's essentially what my blog title means. It's how my interest in haiku started, and I suspect that's probably the extent of what I can do. But we'll see.

Let's go beachcombing!