From Relentless Griever to Relentless Thinker

A few weeks ago, my friends, the Relentless Thinkers of “the idea works” put out a call on Facebook, asking people to create a list of five inspiring mentors. I did not realize it was a contest. But, I love when people ask me to share my thoughts. So I created my list. Five strong women: Pauli Murray, Dolores Huerta, Malala Yousafzai, Wangari Maathai, and Jane Goodall. These are women who didn’t (and still don’t) give up. I learned today I “won!” I will get a Relentless Thinkers business card of my very own and it will have my name listed with the five women who inspire me. I feel like I just graduated to a new plane of existence. I am beyond ecstatic.

Meanwhile, I have been wanting for the longest time to revive this blog. I do believe that recent events indicate that Georg is telling me it would be okay if I start to address matters other than him. My late father is ready for me to wear the mantle of a Relentless Thinker, as opposed to a Relentless Griever. I know this because as I was leaving work today, right on my path to the parking lot was this seagull feather. I know for a fact it was sent by Georg. He always does that when he wants to get my attention. It is because of the feather that I am sitting at my dining room table right now, crafting this blog post.

I need advice. I want to create a website that will promote my poetry books, poetry projects, poetry activism, and the Malawi reading garden project. Does anyone have experience making websites in WordPress? How easy is it? I would like to stick with WordPress and re-energize my blog to be coupled with a home page that provides links so people can buy books or learn about my various projects, things like 100 Thousand Poets for Change, Poetic Pairings, the Lilongwe Reading Garden Project, and more.

Will making a website in WordPress be easy to do? They have a lot of tutorials. Have any of you ever used them? I am eager to do this because I have a new book coming out later this year called Van Gogh Dreams (HenschelHaus Publishing). It is an anthology I compiled of poems by 31 poets about the life and art of Vincent van Gogh. It is also an homage to my dad, and will have one of his Van Gogh-related drawings on the cover. Proceeds from book sales will go to the Malawi project. I have other merch to sell and I will tell you all about it in a future blog post. Yes, I have a lot to tell you.

This evening, I may be a relentless thinker spinning around in an ecstatic tornado of ideas and father-memories and feathers, so I need to focus. Help me land with some solid ideas about creating a website. WordPress? Wix? Weebly? Others? Go!