Shoreline Driftwood – A Four-Year Anniversary and Thank You to Readers

On September 21, 2008, I typed in my first post for my blog, Shoreline Driftwood. Today, I am 6 days away from celebrating the 49 month anniversary for this blog, and just a little past its 4 year anniversary. In those 49 months, Shoreline Driftwood has received 18,856 page views on its 221 posts from readers all over the world. I know the counter on the blog does not read as having recorded that high of traffic to my blog. Unfortunately, the counter had to be restarted on multiple occasions because it failed to keep working from time to time. This explains why the counter only indicates 9716 visitors to my blog as of today's date. 

I am extremely grateful to all the readers who have stopped by my blog, either to give it an occasional read or to become regular readers. I wanted to take this anniversary and use it as an opportunity to share with readers not only my gratitude (which is deeper and more heartfelt than I can state) but also to include some of the highlights as culled from the stats on page viewings which reflect your interests in my writing.

Readers of my blog emanate from nations all over the world. The top 10 nations in terms of numbers of page views is as follows: 

1) United States – 8839, 

2) Germany – 1206, 

3) Russia –1156, 

4) United Kingdom – 781, 

5) Slovenia – 592, 

6) Netherlands – 348, 

7) France – 308, 

8) South Korea – 265, 

9) Canada – 244, 

10) Ukraine – 198. 

In addition to these nations, I know the blog has had readers from Indonesia, Philippines, Lebanon, Iraq, and India, in addition to many other nations.

For my writing to reach such a broad and diverse readership is very humbling at the same time as it is extremely gratifying. I am amazed and surprised by the reach of the blog given it was such a small venture 4 years ago. I had no idea I could, or even any ambition to, generate the large and diverse readership which I have garnered over the past 4 years. As I say, I feel humbled by the response.

Indeed, at some point in 2010, I realized my readership had grown to a point that I could reach more people per month from my blog than I could from many, if not most, of the online literary journals in operation. Consequently at that time, I ceased submitting my writing to other sources for possible publication. For the entire 4 year period, I have averaged 385 viewings per month and I found I was getting as many as 1100 to 1200 viewings in some months. I liked how I was able to garner so many viewings without contributing to advertising or feeling constrained by publishers and editors. I experienced a great deal of freedom in this way, not being limited by subject matter, style, voice, or genre (poetry, non-fiction, or fiction). As a consequence, I have grown as a writer, as a thinker, and as a person. I have to thank all of you as readers of Shoreline Driftwood for making this possible.

Next, I’d like to share with you a list of my top 25 most viewed blog posts. I’ll provide the title, a brief description of the blog entry, the date it was posted (month/day/year), and the number of viewings. If readers find they missed something and want to go back to view it, you can click on the link below or by going to the blog archive and looking in the month and year indicated for the title, and then merely clicking on the title will take you to the post.

1)      Ekphrasis Exercise – three poems I wrote which interpret three pieces of art, 2/7/10, 1830 viewings

2    2)      An Interpretation and Discussion of Charles Olson’s Poem “Maximus to himself” – an analysis of the poem, 1/21/10, 1135 viewings

3)      A Critical Mass – my epic creation tale poem and poetic magnum opus, 12/15/08, 820 viewings

4    4)      Metternich, Bismarck and Franco Reveal Reactionary-Conservatism’s Political Struggle with the Rise of Populist, Liberal-Republican Equality – an historical overview with critical commentary, 5/26/10, 450 viewings

5    5)      On Reliving the 60s: The Conflict between the Old Entrenched Power Structure and the Youth Movement – an historical overview with commentary and analysis, 4/1/09, 362 viewings

6    6)      An Analytical Introduction to the Poetry of Jim Morrison – a brief introduction to the poetry of Jim Morrison, 5/13/10, 225 viewings

7    7)      On the Rise and Fall of America’s Counterculture (1967-1972) – an historical overview with commentary, 12/10/08, 216 viewings

8    8)      The French in Indochina and the Beginning of Decolonization and the End of Domination by Western Empires in the Third World – an historical analysis with commentary, 5/24/10, 181 viewings

9    9)      R. D. Laing’s Radical Psychology and My Arguments with Contemporary Psychiatric Diagnosis and Treatment – an overview and analysis with commentary, 8/3/09, 166 viewings

10)  Seductively Satirizing Hollywood’s Seduction: Woody Allen’s Anti-Genre Films – an overview and analysis with commentary, 11/12/09, 160 viewings

11)  On the Organization of an Enlightened and Ecologically Sound Community – a philosophical look at two possible futures depending on humanity’s approach to Climate Change which includes detailed scientific factual findings, 2/14/09, 152 viewings

12)  On the Nature of Consciousness: Consciousness’ Relationship to Living a Life with Meaning – a detailed analysis which includes the latest neuroscientific research and findings and a philosophical interpretation of the information,12/6/08, 143 viewings

13)  the firestorm of raging opulence – one of my poems (a short one), 6/8/09, 140 viewings

14)  On Reviewing the Realities of Reagonomics’ Supply Side Strategies and their Effects on the Current American Recession – an historical overview with critical analysis, 3/23/09, 139 viewings

15)  Understanding Classical Greek Mythology and Its Avenues for Enlightenment – an historical overview with interpretive analysis and commentary, 11/10/09, 130 viewings

16)  The Fifth Revolution in Poetics: On a Brief Overview of the History of Poetry with Commentary and Analysis – an historical overview with a contemporary analysis and urging for a 5th revolution, 3/23/10, 108 viewings

17)  On Choices, Actions and Responsibilities: Freedom, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – a philosophical treatise which includes an historical overview and critical analysis, 12/12/08, 104 viewings

18)  On How George W. Bush Confounded the Wisdom of the Ages – an historical overview with critical analysis of Bush’s leadership and neocon’s ineffective strategies with regard to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, 12/7/08, 103 viewings

19)  Significant Word Exercise: Peace – a commentary from the personal point of view, 1/28/10, 101 viewings

20)  Jung and Mythopoetic Thought – a brief overview with commentary, 12/7/09, 83 viewings

21)  Solaced Wistless Sighs – one of my poems (a short one), 12/21/10, 66 viewings

22)  On Death, Dying and Reintegration – The Transition from Life through Death into Reintegration with the All – a philosophical and spiritual view of the after-death experience, 7/28/12, 60 viewings

23)  On Seeking Balance in the Contemporary World – a philosophical and spiritual commentary, 7/10/12, 55 viewings

24)  A Poetry Exercise and Prompt: From “Meeting the Mountains” to Amniotic Steps” – a poetry exercise which reveals the writing of my poem “Amniotic Steps” (a short poem), 9/7/10, 55 viewings

25)  The Approaching Age of Equality - an historical overview with contemporary analysis and commentary, 11/3/11, 48 viewings  

     As you can see, only four of my poems are present on this list. By far, most of the posts on Shoreline Driftwood are original poems and most of them have received viewings in the 20s or 30s, though some of my earliest postings of poetry show only a handful of viewings. I assume most people don’t go back through the blog archive to look for older nuggets and because I had a small readership in the early days I have fewer viewings of those items.

  

     I’d like to remind readers that all of my essays have been rewritten and updated with the revised versions incorporated into my two books of essays. Likewise, all of my poems have been revised and those revisions have been included in the book of my complete poetry (with two exceptions, Unrestrained Perfect Love was written after the book was compiled and By a Stream was omitted from inclusion because of an oversight). My two books, "Love-ism Volume I" (poetry) and "Love-ism Volume II book I" (first book of essays), are available to be purchased online. You can find the links in 2 of the next 3 newer blog posts. 

  

     Thank you to everyone who has stopped by for a visit and to all of you who will do the same in the future. I am grateful for all of you. The purpose of my writing is to share my deepest thoughts, my most urgent feelings, my hopes and fears, and my unique perspective on our world. That sharing and communication has been accomplished is reflected by the viewing numbers I’ve posted. You give my life meaning and value by reading what I have written. I can never overstate how much that means to me.

      My wish for all of you is for peace, happiness, good health, warm relationships, and a fulfilling life. May we continue to grow together in the future. 

The Next Beatles' Movie - A Band on the Run

"A Band on the Run" is a treatment for a full length feature film of entertaining fiction in the musical/comedy genre. Paul remains in Lagos, Nigeria after completing the recordings for Wings’ “Band on the Run” album. Paul is abducted and taken hostage by the fiendish arch villain, Blowfish, and his accomplice, Richard Nixon, who demand a ransom of $50,000,000 which they intend to use to purchase a new, and highly secret, super weapon being developed which they then intend to use to usurp power from the nations of the world. Linda calls John Lennon to ask him for assistance in rescuing Paul. John enlists the aid of George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the operation. Ringo brings Alice Cooper and Derek Flint into the operation. What follows is a series of madcap scenes in their adventure to rescue Paul.