On Poet Blogging: In Response to Tim Yu

I recently received an email from Tim Yu asking for ideas on blogging, so here is a somewhat on the fly response.

I am sometimes ambivalent about “community” formation which is said to occur in blog world. I know for sure that many of my relationships with other poets have begun here, given geographical distance. And interfacing/interacting with local poets occurs both here, and in person; I realized recently while talking to Al Robles at the Bayanihan Center that I really wouldn’t know how to get a hold of him in e-world, but that should not distress me when he tells me I can usually find him at Manilatown. When I’ve worked my nerve up and ask him for something huge, and he agrees to it/gives me his word, shakes hands with me, and we are confident that he will honor that agreement made over the hand shake, this type of “honor” and “word” makes me nostalgic for something pre-blog, pre-e-world, that maybe centrally exists mostly among older generations.

I should specify that it’s many of my more recent professional relationships which have begun and are maintained in blog world, and a greater e-world. I’ve blogged recently about how within my generation of Filipino American poets, for example, while I’m not losing sleep over not having many BFF’s there, I wholeheartedly believe we maintain sincere, respectful, and supportive professional relationships. I do not believe that because these relationships can be said to be “all business,” that there is no humanity to be found here. A recent round of email exchanges with these poets in so many different parts of the country confirms for me the collegiality, mutual admiration, and respectfulness of our long distance relationships.

So blog matters then, as a professional tool for me, in maintaining communication within these relationships, but blog is not a substitute for closed and private communications, for in blog world, we may censor ourselves out of fear of revealing “too much” when discussing political and professional issues we are trying to work out, especially if these are making us feel particularly vulnerable, for whatever reason.

Is this vague? When I say “professional,” is it clear what I mean? So then, let me say that by “professional,” I mean the work we do within the poetry industry, or within the poetry industrial complex, in teaching gigs, speaking gigs, seeking publication, seeking book contracts, applying for grants, fellowships, awards. I think blog is helpful for me here; it’s important for me to have an online presence. My website is how so many editors, professors/educators find me, and my blog is how they and their students keep abreast of where new poems, interviews, reviews, etc. are appearing, where I am reading and speaking next (I can’t seem to keep up with my schedule well enough to keep my webmistress completely updated on what I am doing, where, and when), what new shit I am writing, what the process entails, what difficulties, what influences, what I am reading, some/lots of which is apparently important or interesting to these educators, students, readers. Cool then.

This is why you will find so little of what happens in my personal, private life here. It’s tricky sometimes, with a husband who is also in the poetry world, because all that poetry business talk doesn’t leave itself outside the front door. We verbally tussle over poetry stuff while cooking dinner, and that’s just the way our homelife is.

Tim also asks whether blog is a “shop,” or a “boutique,” and whether blog offers viable alternative spaces for traditionally marginalized groups to have a platform. I think blog can be a boutique to those who willingly do not enable their comment boxes. This is a clear message to me that these bloggers are not interested in two way communication. These blogs as boutique then, with the bloggers displaying themselves behind glass cases, consenting to be spectacle. As for bloggers not enabling their RSS feeds, if there are such bloggers, I don’t know what to make of them (if it’s not due to lack of techie proficiency).

To the latter, the issue of platform, sure, blog can be democratic in that I get to say whatever I want to say here, forward my experiences, beliefs, and criticisms of the poetry industrial complex or of Western/American literary canon and the racism of its gatekeepers, however unpopular or unhip my politics are to other American poets. But just because we are exercising democracy in this way does not mean we are being read. Just like a book, there is no guarantee that just because it exists, it gets found, picked up and not put back down, read, and responded to.

Even though some interesting conversations have come out of blog posts, I have come to believe that blog is not the best space for fruitful dialogue to occur. I believe blog can be a space encouraging lurkers, trolls, voyeurs to thrive and not contribute to the dialogue, or to exercise and hone what I believe to be really terrible social skills. I wonder about chronic blog commenters who have no blogs of their own, though they have Blogger usernames, and if this is a matter of keeping one’s own yard clean while shitting in others’ yards.

“Lurkers,” or readers who don’t leave comments, sometimes I wish I’d hear from them, because my blog stats tell me that lots of people are reading my blog posts, but I don’t have so much of a problem with “lurkers,” especially if these are students coming to this blog to learn something or gain some insights as they’ve been assigned my book. I welcome them as readers. If they leave comments, that’s great, and if not, that’s fine too.

With the trolls: this blog’s comment box is not someone else’s space to rant, bully, intimidate, proselytize, otherwise push his/her own manifesto. This type of commenter is like the open mic reader who takes up way more time than the invited feature reader, and uses this time to hold the audience captive (hostage) as s/he rants, screams and yells to hear his/her own voice, not even reading/performing poetry. I think, get your own damn space to rant in, get a myspace and collect friends/followers. That guy Tom will add you.

So there’s that. Hoping I’ve answered Tim’s question.

Tags: Tim Yu