BOB GRUMMAN
The Final Meaninglessness
Deep in the October sun's now-alto understanding of a lakeside park Poem sat meditating on his life, aware of the final meaninglessness that all his many meanings would eventually lead to, but not caring, the park's maples, birches and pines ampling him forever too large for that as their appreciation of the sun . trembled into, and partook of, the sun's understanding of them
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AB - To blog or not to blog, this is the question…
BG - Thanks for doing this, Anny. The question above is one that I was concerned with a week or so ago when depressed by how few people were visiting my blog (just 6 or 7 a day). Why bother? Well, it serves as a journal for me personally. It forces me to write something daily which I need. It's there for some public, and who knows, maybe some public will find it of value, eventually. It's also becoming a good storage shed for the many old essays of mine I'm posting to it. Finally, there ARE still a few regular visitors, some of whom help me with comments.
AB - How would you characterize your blog you should describe it to one of us, i.e. another blogger?
BG - I'd describe it the same way I'd describe it to a non-blogger. Mine's a down and dirty blog--no fancy animation. It's out of the way, too, I understand. It's devoted to poetry, with an emphasis on visual poetry (and my own poetry--I often use it as a workshop). I think of it as an informal school for others, at times.
AB - I sometimes regard my blog as a safe place where I can meet my chosen people, is this the same for you?
BG - I guess I don't need a safe place. Anyway, I don't think of it like that. I do think of it as a place where I ought to meet (and have met) people interested in poetry. Some of them have been very hostile, which is great, for I like to argue.
AB - I am wondering do we sometimes forget that personal remarks, notes, poems are there for everybody to be seen?
BG - I feel I'm aware all the time that others will find out possibly embarrassing things about me, but don't care--because (1) I'm shameless, and (2) all my life I've had to keep my true political and religious thoughts to myself, and they're the only things that could get me in trouble. Sometimes they leak out.
AB - Do you post many poems on your blog? Is there an actual difference in-between publishing online, mainly through a blog, or printed publishing?
BG - I post just about ALL my poetry as I compose it to my blog now. Publishing online is much different for me than publishing in print because I do visual poetry that has too many colors, and often is too large, to be printed by the kind of publishers who print my work (i.e., poor publishers). Also, I publish all kinds of in-progress work at my blog that I would never want in print.
I post a lot of solitextual poems (i.e., solely textual poems) to my blog, too. I don't find that much different from mailing them to xerox publishers, as I used to do but almost never do now.
AB - What kind of actual or immaterial feedback do you receive from publishing online through a blog?
BG -I feel I've gotten helpful comments about some of my poems--and other stuff I've put in my blog. It seems comparable to the feedback I got in letters from friends about my poems in the micropress--not many comments but every once in a while some useful criticism or useful encouragement.
AB - What do you think of the Blogosphere when related to blogs that deal with poetry?
BG - It's like mass media related to the micropress, or the world related to the monks exchanging letters back in the middle ages.
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