100,000 Hits

OK, granted, probably 2 out of 10 came to the site by mistake, maybe closer to 3, but the hit count is gratifying.

I remember being pleased when my stats reached 10,000.

And 100,000 is still chump change compared to Silliman’s blog, racing toward 3,000,000.

But the interest shown in my efforts encourages me to do more and work harder. I’ve followed up on some of my promises (examining more poetry by Donne) but haven’t followed up on others (more posts on the imagery of various poets and poems). I also haven’t produced any longer poems this summer – just a few haiku.

I’m out of work. Homeowners aren’t hiring carpenters.

I’m eating into savings and I’m beginning to wonder which direction I should go. Should I pick up another trade? Should I try to write and publish some children’s stories? Should I try teaching literature at a community college?

Probably all of those.

Truth is, I enjoy writing this blog more than I’ve enjoyed any other writing. I just need to turn my writing into income. That I haven’t done so yet falls squarely on my own shoulders. Time to get busy, or get poor.

A Little Flarfolatry

I bought Poetry Magazine just to see what the kerflarfle was all about.

In the meantime, did you watch the Tonight Show with William Shatner?  Palin is revealed for the flarfist that she really is. Shatner’s performance of Palin makes the flarfists of Poetry Magazine look like rank amateurs. She is the Way. She is the Tao of flarf.

California Plates

I’ve recently made contact with a poet in California and also a blogger. And guess what!

The Poet’s name is Neal Whitman and he contributes to a fine blog called Getting Something Read: Short Works for the Peripatetic Web Surfer, with some of the best online poetry I have read. (Click on the plates to visit.) The latest is by Kristina Baer, Only Water, and a beautiful read. The PG stands for Pacific Grove, California. Pacific Grove, all by itself, probably has more people in it than all of Vermont. I am chastened.

Anyway, I herewith start my Poet license plate collection. Any and all poets with the unmitigated arrogance and hubris to declare themselves a poet to God and state trooper is invited to send me their license plate. I will add it to my widgets as a link!

The Tao of Poetry

Or why I no longer seek publication.

In my early twenties I was a young acolyte and poetry was like a fish -

And submitting poetry was like trying to catch that fish. For twenty years I have been rejected by every publisher  – whether poetry, fables or children’s stories.  Just last year, in the Writer’s Market Guide to Literary Agents, I read that the two least desirable genres were poetry and children’s stories.

The music in the video below, a favorite of mine, is a set of variations on Corelli’s La Folia – itself a set Corelli wrote on the “La Folia” theme.

La Folia means folly or the madman.

I’ve been a fool.

But maybe, now, I’m becoming a little like that Monk in the final variation -

And my poetry like that fish,