I am irredeemably sad tonight:

This nation held apart by blight,

A son whose only longing is to hold his mother tight

Cannot but fear

The months, the year

To come

On the phone we talk

And through the perk and pluck

The eulogies to Lady Luck

I hear the resonance of a solitude uncalled for,

The echoing absence of him

Your love, our shadow

The space for grief has shrivelled somehow

And yet could we need him more than now?

His sanguine sighs,

Benign resignation in his eyes,

With a half-smile to the stars

He’d say “We are where we are.”

And here, here is what I fear the most:

That you might, seduced by his gentle ghost,

See fit to turn yourself over to his side.

And we

Unfree to hold you, soothe you, sing you to your rest,

Must sit apart, protest,

But leave you lonely as you are processed

Into whatever passes for Heaven in these dread days.

We shall not place your hand in ours,

Nor watch your breath shallow,

Eyes narrow,

Skin sallow,

For you will be taken before all is said,

Before all is done,

And this sorrow-soaked son

Will simply melt into tomorrow.

So.

Stay a while longer mother mine,

For there will come another time,

This present madness will be but a shrug

And we’ll close this howling distance to a hug.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.