To launch the 2021 version of my blog and mark the start of daily updates (more on that tomorrow), have the poem that ends with the text from the title page of my blog that was inspired by my camping trip where I took the picture used as the backdrop of the title page.

The sullen thrum of a distant engine
Rings in the cascading hills
As they rise and fall on the horizon,
Fading into the white haze
Of a humid Wisconsin evening.
A fire burns to cinders in the foreground
And the stars silently conquer the curtain of night,
Pinpricks of sunlight poking through the shroud
That wraps a dying day,
As we cling to the hope
That we are as eternal as this moment.

Later, still and perspiring
As I seek cool comfort in scant breeze
And the privacy of my tent,
The moment has been and gone
And the stars’ advance falters
In the glow of nearby cities.
But the sullen rumble of distant engines
Still echoes through the hills
And a lone horn blares,
Mourning the passage of another day
As time marches on,
Deliveries are made,
And a schedule is kept.