Introduction

I've been writing poetry since childhood and for the most part keeping it to myself. And yes, I've had poems published, and I've occasionally read in public; and yes, people have from time to time had nice things to say about certain poems. But for the most part my life as a poet has been frustrating. All I've ever really wanted to do was share my poems with others, but for some reason it's never been as simple as one might think. The whole process of submitting work for publication is extremely distasteful. I was going to write "distasteful to me," but I'm sure it's distasteful to just about everyone.


And somehow whenever I do that I feel like I'm missing the point anyhow. So once in a while something gets published, and so what? Almost all published poetry eventually winds up lost in the huge constellations of published poems hanging out there to dry in the vast universe of indifference that is the "poetry world." And as for "chapbooks," please. I wouldn't be caught dead in one.

Is there a better way?

I've been a great believer in blogging for some time now, and for the most part it's worked for me. I wrote a whole book based on blog posts and then presented it in a blog of its own. Not a book of poetry, no -- actually a scholarly book. And all things considered it worked out pretty well. You can check it out here if you like.

So, when contemplating a poem of mine that I've been living with for a while and continually refining, while realizing at the same time that there is no hope of ever getting any attention paid to it even if by some miracle it gets published somewhere, it suddenly occurred to me that I could share it on a blog. And the only way to properly do that would be on a blog all my own. Well, why not? I've got a lot of poems I'd like to share and lots of thing to say about poetry as well. And as it also occurred to me, there are lots of poets out there who'd like to share their work, yet find nothing but closed doors in front of them whenever they, never mind how meekly, knock.

So. This blog is going to feature my poetry and my thoughts on poetry. Yes. And I'm not ashamed of that. But I've also decided to open the doors to other poets who'd like to share their work here. And I've decided to open the door to one and all. I don't care if your poetry is "bad," because I don't believe in bad poetry. A poem is what it is just like we are all what we are. So as long as your poems are not seriously offensive, bigoted or deliberately stupid, I will -- at least for the time being -- present them here. Time permitting, natch. Send them to me at victoragrauer at gmail dot com and I'll pass them on. As long as that's practical. We'll see.

Comments of any kind are welcome, so long as they are relevant and respectful. I'm not at all sure whether this blog is going to take off or simply be ignored, but I'm eager to give it a try. So here goes . . .