Sunday, January 20, 2008

Goodnight and Good Luck

The time has come to turn a page and start something new. The Wet Bank Guide has been a defining part of my life, of what I do and who I am, for two-and-a-half years. From the first days after 8-29 when I started gathering tidbits of news because the mainstream media we so lost and confused in the days of the flood, until I wrote the last post just below this, it has both captured and defined how my life was changed by those signature events.

The last piece, Carry Me Home, seems a perfect book end to the story of my journey home, the story line that predominated on WBG at the end. That journey is complete, and what is before me is not a journey but something like a continuous arrival. Having reached this cultural Galapagos, it is no longer about the voyage: the rats and the hardtack and the bad weather. It is instead about the beauty of a life unimagined elsewhere.

I think I need a change of tempo and time to begin the next movement, and so we will leave this story here and continue elsewhere. Look for me at my other sites that have sprouted up over time, primarily at Toulouse Street -- Odd Bits of Life in New Orleans, and at Poems Before Breakfast. I plan to collect what I think is the best of Wet Bank Guide and publish it to paper sometime in the near future, and I will post that here when I do.

Beyond the book idea, I have other writing projects banging around in my head or in progress. There simply aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week to do all I want and need to do and I think Wet Bank Guide is what has to give. If you've been one of my loyal readers or one of those who have left kind comments or track-back links, thank you. You have pushed me indirectly to keep writing, and by doing so first to keep my head above water and then to grow as a person. I am forever indebted to you for that.

For Victoria and Annette, my some-time editors, thank you for your help. To all of the NOLA Bloggers who were my eyes on the ground when I was still in Fargo, and who have become friends since coming home, thank you as well. This blog is just one, tiny part of a huge collective and collaborative space that is telling the story of the rebirth of New Orleans better than any other media. It is a privilege to be in your company. And to my wife Rebecca, who blazed the trail home, and my children Killian and Matthew left the place they knew growing up and who made this city their home, thank you beyond the ability of words to express.

One last thing for everyone who comes here: Remember.


Comments:
Will you be keeping the blog up for a while? 'Cause it would be good to have this up for a bit until you get it on paper...which I KNOW you will.

Be well. Godspeed to da WBG.
 
Thanks for the memories.

Peace,

Tim
 
"Remember"

Frequent Wet Bank Guide readers will surely always remember the collected essays at this site. This is a veritable treasure trove of poetic, post-FF commentary.

Thank you, Mark. Profoundly.

And press on!
 
Thanks for everything you have written about and done for NOLA. I'll meet you on Toulouse St.
 
Remember. You have forever changed its meaning for me. Goosebumps just reading the word. Thank you so much, Mark. You've told the story quite beautifully.
 
Can I still call you Mr. Wet?
 
best wishes on your next path
 
Well, P, I think I'm indelibly marked as Mr. Wet. Be careful around the Mrs, though...
 
Thanks for all of the wonderful pieces you have written here. Over the last 29 months you have tears to my eyes and then gave me hope.

Namaste!

GG
 
And, as Keith Olbermann often closes his broadcasts (when he's not channeling Murrow), "Aloha."

This is something of a rite of passage for me: I was present at the birth (or at least the Terrible Twos) of this cyber-literary masterpiece, and now I find myself marching lakeward up Toulouse Street, toward the Cemeteries, behind its Second Line. Along the way, I actually got to meet you, and several of the other coolest people on the face of the planet, in person, that remarkable Twelfth Night (was that only a year ago?). And, in the words of the immortal Ahh-nuld Schwarzenegger, "I'll be ba-ack"...

Stranger than truth: I had just discovered the poetry site this past week!

See you over at Ashley's. Aloha!
 
Bon voyage, my friend. Thanks for all you have written, and testified to!
 
This blog has been dear to my heart since 8/29/05. You've written here so eloquently what I couldn't express and I thank you for that. I love and will miss WBG but PBB will give me my Mark fix, I think. Good luck.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
I need to try this again. My keyboard moved and caused a typo.

I need someone to help me with my empire. Please apply.
 
Cool and keep on writing - you're great.
 
Good Job! :)
 
Posts are so interesting where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up
 
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"And when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcome, but when we are silent we are still afraid. So it is better to speak remembering we were never meant to survive." -- Audie Lorde

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