What do I know. I'm a mom, and I ply a trade by day. I spent too many years in classrooms after high school, but only a handful were in the humanities end of the liberal arts. I can't take in more than one poem at a time, any more than I can stand to trudge dutifully through an art museum merely to take in a microsecond look at a collection of the masters. I have a very simple test for whether a poem is good (for me) or not: it either bangs the gong, or it doesn't. I have read more good poetry online in the past couple of years of reading blogs than I probably have elsewhere in the past couple of decades. I would never have been moved to write about poems, ever, if it hadn't been for blogging. The best thing I read about poetry recently was written by Rachel Dacus in this post: "We read poetry because it is more difficult, and layered, than other
forms of writing. We prize its obscurities, as long as we can barely
keep up with them." And the saddest poetry experience I've had recently was to find that Dinsmoor is no longer on the web. I went back to hear A's audio poems again, but now they're gone, like an ephemeral sand painting.
i'd have to agree with you about the ubiquity of poetry, and the surprise findings of excellence on certain blogs. unpublished authors can build an audience based at least partly on merit now, instead of relying on the luck of formal publication... anyway, incase you have any gardening posts, i'll link to them here:
http://drcharles.blogspot.com/2005/05/first-sunday-of-may-tomato-gardening.html
have a great sunday.
Posted by: charles | May 01, 2005 at 11:03 AM
Thanks, Dr. Charles! My tomato seedlings are not quite ready for the spotlight yet, but I'll keep you...posted. Cheers.
Posted by: Chan S. | May 02, 2005 at 06:22 AM
I have found words on blogs that have touched my soul like Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Bronte...modern day spinners of yarn on a electronic medium, which is all too ephemeral. I love reading blogs, and I wish I was teaching writing again so I could get the students to read some of the blogs and to encourage them to write free-form themselves.
I enjoy your site immensely, even if I don't always post.
Happy Spring! Rachel
Posted by: Rachel | May 12, 2005 at 07:58 PM
Right back atcha, Rachel. I hope that you will have the occasion to teach writing again--your students will be as inspired by your writing as are your readers.
Cheers!
Posted by: Chan S. | May 12, 2005 at 09:25 PM