Tag Archives: blogging poetry

Hello Poetry Top Ten

As a poetry site I really like Hello Poetry. It is user-friendly and uncluttered. It is easy to comment and message other poets. It’s a sort of lyrical Facebook without the bells and whistles. A nice feature they provide is a count of how many views a poem gets over time. In this day and age, one never knows if these stats are truthful, algorithmic hype or fake, but accepting the bean counters at face value, here are my ten most-read poems since I began posting at the site in 2015. They range, top to bottom (if one believes the stats), from 29K+ views down to 13K+ views. Strangely enough, John Greenleaf Whittier’s Snow-bound which I posted there in its entirety, came in at number nine with 14K+ views. I wonder: are people actually reading these ?

1. Snow – Bound

2. Diversity Training

3. Planet of the Smartphones

4. Jungle Smile

5. Betting on the Races: Dark Horse

6. A Chicken in Every Pol Pot ☭

7. Poultry in Motion

8. Cuneiform: Textual Intercourse

9. Hung on a Psychosociolinguistic Scaffold

10. Christian Types in Limerick

Why My Poetry Sucks

The Internet is a strange and fickle thing.

I pride myself on not being swayed by social media. I do not Twitter, Facebook, nor do I Instagram or use any other similar media. It’s pretty much WordPress, Hello Poetry, and one more poetry site that eat up my time online, along with YouTube of course.

Last Saturday and also on Monday, my blog had more views than usual.
During April, it is usually like that due to National Poetry Month.
I was happy, in a silly stats-driven cybernetic way.
(They say dopamine levels go up with Social Media stats and I believe it).

But I have also noticed that lots of views on one day can give the illusion that people are actually reading poetry blogs. Then yesterday I posted what I believe to be one of my better poems, which I worked on and edited extensively. I posted it earlier in the day than normal, thinking there would be more time for it to get read, and I checked the stats like a maniac . . . to be rewarded with SEVEN views all day, ha ha ha .

Have you ever wondered about blogs showcasing what seems to YOU to be vapid, superficial and carelessly-written poetry receiving hundreds of “likes” while others that display masterful use of wordcraft barely get read?

What does this poetic philosopher have to say to us on the topic?

Incendiary Bestiary

 

Unlocked, loaded, let your words flame papercandle-flame

set arson to thought-control, torch the news.

Pyro-dissident: touch fire to their views

Reveal new topographies, mind-shaper.

Spark a candle—a single thin taper.

Subvert what worldlings dare not refuse.

The herd will always revile or accuse;

but contours alter for you, landscaper—

so chastise darkness. Proclaim what is right.

(When their stable burns down due to your light

or smoldering, implodes, it’s not your fault.)

If the status quo will not acquiesce

then muster another frontal assault.

There’s no shame in a flame; just incandesce…

Strike the Prose

I wonder sometimes
why droll observations;
recollections of a personal and
sometimes confessional nature,
(interesting enough in themselves – if well-written),
get called “poems” when broken up by
weird line spacing. Nothing against
descriptive prose –
but I don’t think it is truly
Poetry. You can call it that
if you want; I don’t
mind.