September Roundup

There’s a new poem today, by the way: ‘Little Hooks’

September has been a turning point. The blog passed its highest month on record, and more than a hundred readers are now following along. A special thank you to all the new subscribers — welcome, and I hope you find something here to enjoy, or that provokes thought.

This project began as an experiment and keeps unfolding in unexpected ways. The writing tends to return in three voices: the system voice (cold, procedural, collapsing), the stillness voice (inspired by the Zen poets, pared back and attentive), and the mythic/dark voice (strange, occult, sometimes disturbing). September produced examples of all three.

Highlights from the month:

Compliance is Efficiency — the system speaks in a particularly harsh register.

Morning River Notes — quiet field notes along the river, written as haiku.

The Oars, Forgotten — a meditation on stillness and memory.

A Tiny Deity — a fleeting encounter with something unseen.

Government Brain Serums Hidden in Street Signs Are Controlling the Schoolteachers — paranoid, nightmarish, Kafkaesque.

It’s also been encouraging to see readers explore the archive: Start Here and About are popular, and people are looking at older pieces like Survival is Entropy and Unworded.

Looking ahead: I’ll keep writing — usually one darker and one lighter piece each week. I also have an idea for some art (nothing refined, but it should be fun). Maybe it will give the poems another dimension.

Thank you again for reading, sharing, and subscribing. Your readership is what makes counter/field live, breathe, and evolve (and occasionally glitch like an old machine).

—Stef