I have had no formal training as a writer, but have had the good fortune to have readers, most of whom are not themselves writers, but like to read, to give me feedback. And that has parlayed itself in my luck to have published in a variety of journals around the United States and occasionally Canada (which, I suppose, makes me an international author). Those journals include Prairie Schooner, Tulane Review, Pennsylvania English, Big Muddy, Sanskrit and others. I have also self-published nine books of various kinds: poetry, short essays, a mixed-genre memoir of my home county, and a “conversation” with some of the Lake Poets. I write daily, either making notes for new poems, or writing new pieces. In the last eighteen months, I have been writing dharma, although I am not a card-carrying Buddhist. My dharma differ from Buddhist dharma that they are sensory, often pastoral poems, almost like snapshots of the world and our, and other sentient beings’ place in it. I read a dharma every day, and although I don’t meditate in the Buddhist way, my writing—whether notes or finished pieces—serves as my meditation. I am currently writing a collection of such dharma, and hope to have a book out in late 2024 or early 2025. But I also write other kinds of poems and even though my dharma may seem an odd pursuit, I have learned a great deal about writing of any kind I do. For me, that is a great deal of the joy of writing. As A. A. Milne has Winnie-the-Pooh say in The House At Pooh Corner, “ ‘. . . Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is to go where they can find you.’” Pooh waits a long time, without luck, and so then decides to start with what’s in front of him: “ ‘Here lies a tree’ because it does, and then I’ll see what happens,’” And Pooh is successful. But he makes the observation, when he’s done, that “ ‘It’s come different from what I thought it would, but it’s come.’”(pp. 147-48). That, I think, is how writing works, at least for me, and I would guess for other writers as well. Again, whether writing a poem, a short story, an essay, or a novel, that is the joy of writing. I would add, be alert to what’s around you, and be ready. (And in both my daily life and my writing life, I’ve learned the truth of that from my dharma work.) There is so much more to say, but I’ll save that for a blog down the road.