Welcome to Piers Unbound

"But after my waking it was wondrous long
Before I'd enough natural knowledge to understand what
         Do Well was,
And so my wits waxed and waned till I went out of my
         mind.
And some scorned my life--few would sanction it--
And looked on me as a lazy loafer, one loath to do honor
To lords or ladies, or any other living person,
Such as people in fur-pieces, with pendants of silver."

The Vision of Piers the Plowman, Passus XV

Hello. Welcome to my newsletter, Piers Unbound. My name is Darrick Taylor. I am a writer with a finished but unpublished first novel, another under way, a book of poetry soon to self-publish, and I am an adjunct history prof half-exited from academia. I am a religious man, but this newsletter is my space for reflecting on the secular affairs of the world and anything else that pleases me which is not of the faith (I write on that too, in other venues).

I will be producing some long form pieces on my travel experiences (with an eye to history, naturally), as well as occasional pieces in response to events in the news that catch my eye. My writing will be for the time being occasional, for I am only half-exited from academia, and currently preparing for another semester. But pieces there will be, and hopefully sometime in the future, regular ones.

If you are wondering about my non de plume when I am not hiding my identity, I chose it because, like the narrator of William Langland’s poem, I am something of a dreamer, but still searching “Do Well, Do Better and Do Best.” In this crazy world, I like to think of myself as Piers if he no longer had to labor with his hands, but was free to roam the countryside seeking Truth. Or at least if Piers had been an academic washout.

In writing for this newsletter, part of my rationale was to write without having to censor or encode what I write for other people, to be as an honest as I can be with myself. I promise not to hide anything, and to give you my unvarnished opinion. You may not always like it, but it will always be mine.

So sit back, relax, and following my musings as far as it pleases you.