“This Is My Day” was released on New Year’s Eve, as many of you know. If you haven’t given it a spin, then please do! If you have, then let me know your reactions. 

Amanda and I celebrated New Year’s Eve with a small group of vaxxed, boosted and tested friends. It was fun to host a party indoors. And gratifying that no one got sick afterwards. 

A few days later, we made our way to Key West to attend the 39th Key West Literary Seminar with Amanda’s parents. The event was held in an outdoor amphitheater (the Coffee Butler amphitheater, pictured above), as a precaution against COVID. The weather was wonderful, the speakers were stimulating and the company was excellent. 

The seminar focuses on prose and poetry, not songs, but I picked up some useful ideas from a few of the speakers.

• Writing should provoke introspection (adapted from a comment by Joyce Maynard).  
• A song is like a road trip – the listener should discover something along the way (adapted from a comment by Joyce Maynard). 
• The purpose of a poem is to narrate a transition (Eileen Myles), or set in amber an experience you don’t want to forget (Billy Collins). 
• Use juxtaposition to draw out tension in your themes (adapted from a comment by Jericho Brown). 

I was also motivated to experiment further with points of view, hearing various authors do the same in their works. 

Simple ideas, but useful when wrestling with the details of a song and its production. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds.

It’s been a treat to swing into the New Year with friends, family, travel and learning. We’ve been missing all of these for the past two years. I hope we can continue to find ways to resume something like "normal" life, despite the resurgent pandemic. 

Here’s to a better 2022! 

Tom