Change comes from the everyday actions we take, and the gradual transitions we make. Those little incremental steps we do in our lives to make us healthier, happier, and less subservient to control mechanisms is worthwhile. And over time, those effects compound.
This includes the tools and services we use to accomplish our goals. Me and Substack—my partner-of-choice for bringing my poetry to the wider world for the past few years—are in the final stages of settling our divorce terms. It’s very much gone in my favour: I’m keeping the money and the children (also known as my poems), but I am losing the house. That’s okay. As such, I’ve got my own place now over at tom-shaw.uk.
Yes, my old website has been replaced with a Substack-like look and feel which is housing all the important things I’ve been working on. I'm still in the process of making it look nice, and you might bump into the odd bit of strange formatting if you go poking around in the archives, but it's getting there. Eventually, everything will be presented in a much cleaner way than what I can currently do here on Substack. I detailed the breakdown in my relationship with Substack back in April, and outlined what I planned to do to correct the many issues I was faced in using them.
Now, that plan is finally coming to full fruition. Being on my own platform (powered by a neat technology called Ghost—hence the title of this piece) will allow me to have better control over how I bring you more poems, all without giving support to a company becoming less and less appetising to be associated with. It's still a work-in-progress, but it's been a pleasure to work on creating an experience I am actually fully in control of, and which is much more in alignment with the ideas around preserving individual agency, sovereignty, and directing energy away from the things we disagree with.
Catherine Austin Fitts often tells the story of seeing protestors on Wall Street, and asking the executives of Chase if they were worried about it. Their response? "As long as they still have a Chase card in their wallet, they can do whatever they like."
Moving to Ghost from Substack is like ditching the Chase card, refusing to empower a business or company who is out of alignment with your values. Any instances in life where we can make changes like this is important. A small corner of the internet for sharing poetry and reflections on the state of the world might not seem like the biggest "splash" in that ocean. And maybe it isn't. But if me doing this proves to others that using technology in this way is not only possible, but preferable, then all the reason to do it. Small changes ripple and compound into greater and greater waves.
If you’re reading this piece via e-mail, you don’t need to do anything. It means you're already receiving this piece via the new system! You will keep receiving my emails like you do now, they’ll just appear under a slightly different name as the sender.
With this move, I’ll be winding down the activity on Substack. The publication page itself (tomshawwritings.substack.com) will likely be deleted to avoid people signing up for emails here but not receiving any. I may still share the odd piece from my new website on my personal Notes for anyone who is yet to discover my work, but they will likely be few and far between.
This is just the start of a new era for my writing—one which I hope will bring you some moving and valuable pieces to help you find clarity and build the life you want to be living. And I’ve only been able to get here because of the support of everyone who reads my pieces, writes a comment or e-mail with me, and shares my writings with others who may find comfort in them.
I have some ideas on some things to bring you - poetry, and beyond. All in good time.
With gratitude,
Tom
