DAN WABER
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Commas Released By The Wind
We're in a vintage clothing store, I'm black
tie and tails mugging, you're in a polka
jacket that forms to your hips. Socks with dots,
silk cravats, racks and racks of bijoux rise
from all horizontal surfaces like
a magpie's dream forest. Punctuation
and penmanship on picture postcards from
the hundred years ago shore stand as a
proof of ink and paper. A hand dyed scarf
luxuriates on a mannikin that
looks like Audrey Hepburn. I ask you, "Is
it me?" as I eyebrow-waggle it tied
under my chin. There's no one else around
so you kiss me quickly, stand next to her
and ask, "Who's prettier?" I shake my head.
"It's no contest," I say, dismissing her
with a condescending wave. "She's too dark,
too wooden, her fingers are too curly,
she has no sense of humor, and her hair
feels like plastic. If you don't mind I'll just
stick with what I've got, thanks." On the way out
of the shop, as we arm-in-arm it by
the owner, I flash the scarf and slip her
a twenty. She grins from chin to forehead
and doesn't give me away. Black commas
leap from the powerlines like birds released
from cages by Fall's bluster. We stand by
and watch, thrilled to hand-holding. I tie the
scarf into your hair and spin like the wind.
end
© Dan Waber
AB - To blog or not to blog, this is the question.
DW - Then, by extension, I'd add: whether tis is nobler in the mind to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous comments, or to take arms against them.
I have a long and stormy relationship with blogging.
A long, long time ago I started blogging at xanga.com. I very quickly became hugely dissatisfied with the experience. It seemed like the systems were designed to encourage superficiality and vapidity, rather
than useful discussion and intelligent writing. I continue to believe this. There are certainly users who make efforts at circumventing these built-in biases, but I do believe that these tendencies are built into the structures being used for blogging--and that it doesn't have to be that way.
Improvements have been made along the way by various vendors, but, I'm not completely conversant in them anymore since I made my break with blogging communities in general years ago.
I'm not sure what I do with blog software can really be called blogging, but, maybe.
AB - How would you characterize your blog you should describe it to one of us, i.e. another blogger?
DW - I don't really maintain a traditional blog. I have a suite of projects driven by blog software, some of which operate in ways that are blog-like. But the EPC wouldn't list my site as a "blog" because it didn't meet their definition. I don't know that it meets anyone else's definition, either. I am not really all that interested in meeting definitions of blogging.
AB - I sometimes regard my blog as a safe place where I can meet my chosen people, is this the same for you?
DW - No. When I used to maintain a more traditional blog I never had any sense of safety-of-place about it. Quite the opposite, in fact. The single most important thing that drove me away from traditional blogging communities was the (then) inability to control who was able to read which posts I made. I wanted a much finer level of control over who could see what than was possible at the time. So I built my own space, complete with 4 levels of access (basically people unknown to me, people known to me, close friends & family, and me and my sweetie only). I have since taken that down, as well, and gone to a project based model of posting. I do not have any outlet, currently, for daily bloglike texts.
AB - I am wondering do we sometimes forget that personal remarks, notes, poems are there for everybody to be seen?
DW - I never forgot that. I think others definitely do forget that, though.
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?
DW - To me, this question of what does "published" mean today is one of the most interesting questions we can ask and explore. Electronic publishing of all kinds, from blogs to blogzines, to ezines, to .pdfs, to POD (and POD .pdfs), to the online presences of primarily print journals, etc. ad infinitum, ad absurdum, really serve to problemetize what it means to "publish" and to be published. My personal attempts to explore those issues have led me to a place where "self-published" is no longer a necessarily negative term. As such, if someone chooses to use a blog format as their means of self-publication I feel that is as legitimate an enterprise as publishing through established print journals. I no longer believe method of publication serves as an effective measure of quality of work.
AB - What kind of actual or immaterial feedback do you receive from publishing online through a blog?
DW - I receive precious little feedback. Part of this is my own doing—the things that I do use blog software for all have the comments functionality turned off, so I'm doing nothing to encourage feedback, and many would argue that I'm actually discouraging it by going against the expected conventions of the form. I get an occasional email note, but nothing more. I don't really have any desire for feedback, though, either, to tell the truth.
AB - What do you think of the Blogosphere when related to blogs that deal with poetry?
DW - It's difficult for me to say anything negative about anything that serves to increase the reach of poetry. More people writing and more people reading is as good for poetry in general as it is for those individuals. But I do think it's important to recognize that the format tends towards superficiality and that the best work of poetry is not a superficial thing, quite the opposite. As a tool that can encourage certain types of people to interact with poetry in a way that has value to them, I fully support what blogging does and can do. As a field of endeavor that has the ability to do anything of real import for poets or poetry, I don't see it happening now or any time in the future as long as blog community software is structured on current models.
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