Write Space Literary news, views and reviews http://taurangawriters.org.nz

This week's Write Space blog by Jenny Argante.

This year has been particularly hard in a worldwide recession that, let me remind you, hits countries both large or small. Puts us all under pressure. Costs us dear economically.

Shops are shutting – who can afford those Downtown rents and rates? Unemployment has risen.

If you're stuck in a dreary job with horrid bosses or you're a student looking for seasonal work to supplement your income, tough luck.

Christchurch was hit again by a wave of earthquakes, making it a bleak Christmas for many families. Those who've hung grimly on to homes in designated danger zones are told, 'Get out or else. Why don't you listen to the experts?”

Well, now, it was experts who decided the Pike River Mine was safe to work in, and reduced safety inspections to a minimum. The result of such ‘expertise'? 29 corpses still entombed more than a year after being blasted into oblivion. Earthquakes count as natural disasters. Was the Pike River Mine disaster avoidable?

Such events cost us dear emotionally. Obviously we need to develop resolution, not make resolutions, now the New Year is upon us.

Out of curiosity, I checked in Webster's dictionary and discovered ‘resolution' as a noun has a diversity of meanings.

I liked best ‘being firm of resolve' – what we call willpower – and the idea that resolution is ‘a decision to mend our ways.'

In literature, ‘resolution' is the point at which the main dramatic conflict is worked out. In a community it's a formal expression of opinion, will, or intent within the community.

So in life as well as in literature resolution is ‘a decision to be acted upon.'

Too often it is not. Resolutions remain unfulfilled dreams and wishes, like Beethoven's Unfinished Symphony. He had a good excuse: he died.

What will we have left undone or half-done when our day is over?

With writing I'm haunted by Poetivity, my unfinished book on how to read and write poetry.

Will I ever pen those magic words ‘The End'? And how much does it matter in the face of huge social problems awaiting resolution?

I'm troubled most by the ongoing and escalating abuse of children, helpless and unformed.

The dishing out of mental, emotional and physical torture so routinely the child comes to believe they deserve it. Blaming the child is mean and cowardly. Abuse is never the child's fault.

Why have babies if you can't cope with their neediness and dependency? No one is forcing you to become a parent.

Chris Kahui was 21 when his twin sons died in his care. He already had an older child.

Why take on what you're not ready for in life or in literature? I've resolved to finish Poetivity before the year is out. That will give me intellectual satisfaction.

I've also resolved this year to use whatever wordpower I possess where it matters most.

To speak out against child abuse. To suggest you ask for help if you're the abuser. To determine that the resolution this year is for zero tolerance.

That will give me emotional satisfaction.

And I'm beginning here.