Thursday, February 23, 2006

Poets' blogs

tell me more than I want to know. When you first read The Jungle Books, were you dying to know what Kipling ate for breakfast* and what color his socks were? Did your discovery of "The Eve of St Agnes" make you think, "Did Keats take Flintstones Chewables?"?

I don't want to know about blogging poets' medications or their troubles on moving day or how the cat produced her hairball. I don't care if the latest boyfriend, so cool that even his dick is dyed black, finished off the Pantene Pro-Vita. Your mom doesn't understand you. Your daughter doesn't understand you. Your editor, your best friend's girl, your supervisor at the Zoo: none of them understands you. I understand you, and I find the experience disappointing. Write a poem instead.

I don't really get blogs, do I?

*Mr Kipling's Cakes, I expect

6 comments:

Agnes said...

Too funny, Richard. Have I told you lately that I love you?

Agnes
(who still hasn't posted anything in her blog)

Anonymous said...

No way. You understand it perfectly. Generate some controversy and you're bound to get hits.

If only you would name names, you could probably double your readership. Not that they'd be interested in poetry...

Richard Epstein said...

Dan, it's like the poet/blogger we read about who made an entry consisting almost entirely of phrases like "brittany spears" and "giant boobs," so that people Googling for those would get hits for his blog.

Never heard how well it worked or what the people who went there thought once they'd arrived.

Anonymous said...

Your Grocery Note Had a Little Tear

and right below it, you’d written—

so sorry, but I used the last
of your Pantene Pro-V.
Please don’t forget, dear, we’re still
boycotting grapes. Those growers
mean so much to me, at least
theoretically. And don’t
take this wrong but I can’t stand
the way you really don’t explain
a single thing, as if I ought
to make sense of you myself—
face value really freaks me out.

Rob said...

Richard - I psoted a poem to my blog called "Self-Portrait as Kate Moss", and still get hits from people searching on google for "supermodels". There is a certain satisfaction in realising that they get to my blog and find a poem.

Richard Epstein said...

It's a great idea, and I have begun working on a poem called "Giant Tits on Jacko's Alien Love-Child."