old tricks

Ah, the avant-garde, up to their old tricks again.

James Finnegan - ursprache

AB - To blog or not to blog, this is the question…

JF - I actually prefer listserves to blogs. Blogs remind me of a loosely associated network of 'soag-boxes', with speakers holding forth waiting for the occasional passer-by. Lists, though they are less controlled spaces and thus subject to uncivil behaviour and outright hijackings, are more conducive to free-wheeling dialog and the open exchange of information and views.

AB - How would you characterize your blog you should describe it to one of us, i.e. another blogger?

JF - I use my blog as a kind of commonplace book. I post my short aphoristic notions related to poetry, poetry writing and, to a lesser degree, philosophy. And I intersperse my assertions with quotes related to poetry and philosophy by various & sundry authors. In some way I'm trying out the thoughts that I post. But seeing them on the blog requires me to vest in them and make them mine. If these thoughts had remained in a private notebook they would have been less fully formed and private in a way that would have allowed them to be weaker.

AB - I sometimes regard my blog as a safe place where I can meet my chosen people, is this the same for you?

JF - My blog is probably very safe because it is so little visited at this point. But safety is not a reason why I put up a blog. I just wanted a public place where I could post my thoughts related to a subject that has consumed my life: poetry.

AB - I am wondering do we sometimes forget that personal remarks, notes, poems are there for everybody to be seen?

JF - As I said above, the fact that I'm making my thoughts public makes me push them harder to say the things I want to say, in the way I want them said. Making these thoughts public requires me to make sense of my thoughts in a way I might not otherwise have required of them, had they not been made public. In other words, I have to push my thoughts to a point where I can make them public. They can't be a lazy interior monologue.

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?

JF - I haven't posted poems on the blog...but I may at some point. I see little difference between publishing poetry on a blog and publishing a poem in any other online venue. The point is to make the work known; however little attention the poem may get, if the poem does get out there, there is a chance it will be seen, read and appreciated. What more can a poet ask? ... A handful of people see your poem and appreciated it.

AB - What kind of actual or immaterial feedback do you receive from publishing online through a blog?

JF - My blog is probably little known at this point. I've done little to promote links to my blog or to make it more widely known. When I'm happy with a regular quality of the content I may do more to make my blog known. I get only the occasional comment on my posts. Generally it doesn't result in provoking a dialog with the few visitors who may see it.

AB - What do you think of the Blogosphere when related to blogs that deal with poetry?

JF - I'm not sure I know enough of the wider Blogosphere to answer this question. It seems like most of the blogs are just diaries... I'm mostly not interested in them. I'm interested in blogs that are addressing a specific subject, like philosophy or politics or poetry.


Adam Fieled – Alan Sondheim - Allen Bramhall - Andrew Lundwall – Bob Grumman - Chris Murray - Dan Waber – Deborah Humphreys - Geof Huth - Henry Gould - Jean Vengua - Jeff Harrison – Jill Jones - Mairéad Byrne - Mark Young – Mike Peverett - Nick Piombino - Pam Brown – Tom Beckett - Tom Murphy - Tom Orange –

Introduction: Communication_***_Interview_***_ Blogs I visit _***_ What is a blog _***_ Webliography _***_When Blogs Will Be_***_

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