Edward Nudelman: Because I need constant nurturing,
crave being held in the gentle arms of my comrades,
swill pablum whenever I can find it, am stalking Didi
Menendez, and, most of all, cherish wasting my best
poems in the googlesphere rather than letting them be
splayed and roasted by poetry editors.
Pris Campbell: I'm
active in two poetry communities, cafe cafe and Haiku
Hut (until its closing at the end of October 2007),
though I've belonged to several communities in the past
and not stayed. I belong to these two because poets who
I feel are serious about their craft, and good at it,
are members of both. I know I can post one of my poems/haiga/haiku
and get useful suggestions that look to my goals, not
given with some agenda to make my work into a clone of
someone else's dream. I also know that no-one is wedded
to his or her suggestions. I can take them or leave them
with no hard feelings, but no matter what I do, they
make me think more about what I've written.
I have another more personal reason, too. Because of
health issues, I've not been able to take part in local
poetry activities or travel to meet other poets. The
online community brings the group right here to my
computer. I miss the voices, the sight, the excitement
of being with a writer's group, as I was in the 80's
when part of a novel writing group. To be honest,
however, the diversity of writers I've met in these
communities, would be hard to replicate in a local
setting.
Derek Motion: I live inland
Australia (something like 80% of people live on the
coast here) & therefore community interaction is fairly
limited. too many readings with an audience of around 3
people.
An online poetry community offers new poems & discussion
every day, from all over the world. i think it's
exciting that we are now in a position where you can
seek out your own community, & it need not be physically
determined.
Also, of course, cafe cafe offers a little depth,
& is not simply surface-level social networking, like so
much of this realm.
Courtney J. Campbell: There are a
few reasons:
First, because I live far far from home, and where I
live (Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil), while there is a very
active music community, there isn't a large poetry
community. It is very rare to hear of a poetry reading
or poetry event. So being involved (either as a
participant or spectator) in living poetry would be
virtually impossible for me right now if it weren't for
the internet.
Second, because i love reading poetry as it happens,
unfiltered by editors. Don't get me wrong - I do enjoy
reading journals as well, especially once I have found
the taste of editors that align to some degree with my
own. It's a great way to find new poetry or writers. But
I also like to be able to make those decisions for
myself and to decide what I want to read and why. Also,
once I find a writer whose work I continually enjoy,
it's incredibly satisfying to get a dose of his/her work
on a regular basis.
Third, it gives me the opportunity to get some of my
writing out there too, to see people's reactions to it
and to share it in my native language. I left the states
a little over six years ago, and for awhile, the only
people that read what I wrote were a couple of
professors that I had maintained contact with or some
friends here. Sharing with other writers has really
helped me to develop the way that I write and
communicate.
This interaction is worthy of being a point in itself -
one of the main benefits of participating in online
poetry communities or blog circles has been to meet and
talk with other writers and feel a part of a community,
no matter how small my role in that might be. I have
been interacting with other writers via internet for
about a year now and it has been a rejuvenating and
inspiring experience.
Laurel K Dodge: I belong,
however tentatively these days, to an online poetry
community because I rarely if ever find the opportunity
to talk about poetry in the real world. I use the word
tentatively because my commitment, my sense of belonging
to any given poetry board isn't as strong as it once
was, years ago, when I was first introduced to the
concept of workshopping poetry online. I stumbled into
the online workshop environment via Gumball Poetry and
from there, leap-frogged to Melic Review's Roundtable
(thanks to an invitation from Shann Palmer, god bless
her) and workshopped there on a daily daily basis for a
number of years. Back in the day, Melic was a tough nut
to crack. The critters were hard on newcomers. One had
to earn one's stripes, so to speak. Fools, slackers,
flamethrowers and crappy poets weren't suffered
lightly--really, they weren't suffered at all. I learned
so much in those year about how to read poetry
critically and write and revise poetry and how to help
others read and write poetry. I still miss Melic all
these years later and the board it was and the sense of
community I felt there. I've belonged to other board and
have felt various degrees of camaraderie on them, have
been genuinely embraced and welcomed there (like here on
MiPo), and I'm always astonished at how open these doors
are and how kind, for the most part, most of the
participants are. It seems impossible to me that a group
of strangers can meet in cyberspace, never meet face to
face, yet becomes friends over poetry.
So, in answer to your question, I belong to an online
poetry community because I care about poetry. I care
about the people who write poetry. I'm amazed that we're
all out here scattered across this wide world yet we're
all striving toward the same, seemingly simple, daily
goal: To write a poem.
Do you have any recommendations (tips)
for others seeking to join a "poetic community"?
Edward Nudelman: Be ready to make a committment.
Try to be honest in your assessment/feedback of other's
contributions. Workshop your poetry and by this I mean,
don't use the forum to display your poems, but rather,
be willing to accept advice and suggestions, and from
time to time, post revisions and reworked poems. Don't
use it to advertise for your blog.
Pris Campbell: Look before
you leap. Some communities are open to be read by
anyone. Others are closed and you have to join to read.
If you have to sign up for one that's been recommended,
join, knowing that if it doesn't suit you there's no
requirement to stay.
I look at communities in these ways:
First of all, is the quality of poems poems good? I
realize 'good' is subjective , but I use the 'I'll know
it when I see it' criteria there. You should have some
sense that the poets do understand poetic devices and
put together poems that are fresh and 'show', not '
tell'.
Google some of the names. Have any of the poets
published? I wouldn't want to be stuck on a beginning
writers' board.
Look at the comments. Do you see a lot of 'do it this
way' reactions with no interest shown in the poet's
objectives in writing the poem, or do you see
suggestions that are geared more in terms of 'this part
doesn't work for me' and the reasons given or questions
asked.
Is there a feeling of pressure for a poet to change
his/her poem if any suggestions don't work? A poem can
be helped by thoughtful questions and comments but in
the end, a poem isn't written by a committee. I've see
many good poems in print that wouldn't exist had that
poet belonged to a few communities I've briefly been
belonged to.
And lastly, is there a good spirit manifested in the
community? This is essential for experimentation and the
freedom to be creative there. Some communities are too
busy waging wars to make poems.
Derek Motion: No I don't. Oh
wait. Think hard about it? Consider social-tennis...
bingo... hiking...
If you're still keen then scour the internet & dive into
the poetry community, give 100%. But also maintain
something for yourself, some sort of private life. This
contradictory act will inform your craft.
And be wary of continual congratulation & flattery. You
may know a thousand poets all over the world but you're
not much of a writer. Not yet.
Courtney J. Campbell: I have
a blog on Myspace, which is where I do most of my
interactions. I don't really participate in Myspace
"groups" because ... it just seems so complicated and
there are only so many hours in the day. Mostly, I have
found other blogs that I enjoy and a few people that
also enjoy mine. It's an informal community, so to
speak. I've only recently started using Facebook and was
told that I should check out the mipo's cafe cafe group.
I enjoy reading the poetry in both places, and also
witnessing the feedback and exchanges that take place.
My suggestion would be to read first. Enjoy the work of
other writers and then, join in. I may be wrong but I
think that there is a good-sized group of people that
just throw their work around everywhere without really
paying attention to what surrounds them. Use these
groups as a "poetic community", not an exposition hall.
Exchange with other writers, give constructive
criticism, and be prepared to receive the same.
Do you think that most of the writers
found in a community are novice?
Edward Nudelman: It varies. You can find groups, active
groups, with a large percentage of fairly novice writers
but who actively participate and are growing in their
craft. That has a lot to offer. My experience has been
that it's good to have a mix. You're not going to find a
vibrant group composed of experienced published poets
that you can easily meld into. And why would you want
to? if you try to shoot too "high" as it were, and move
around looking for an elitist group, you'll shoot
yourself in the foot. I think what you're after is a
small group of committed poets interested in improving
their skills and motivated to contribute to the group as
a whole. I view it as an organic process. Sometimes the
development of novice to apprentice to board member is
rapid; and pleasantly surprising. To watch that happen
and be a part of the development in some small way is
extremely exciting, and, it seems to me, one of the best
reasons to have a poetry group in the first place. We
all know individuals whose poetry we weren't that
thrilled about, and then we find they've just won an
award for their latest poem, and boom! they're in the
fore. Then we read them differently, and rightly so.
Pris Campbell: Over
the years, especially when I was beginning to write
poetry, I sampled perhaps 15 boards, so I can only speak
for where I've been. I would say that a few of those
boards were filled with novice writers...the blind
leading the blind. On the bulk of boards I found a mix
of excellent writers with novices. I found three boards,
Mipo sponsored boards (different names over the years),
Haiku Hut (for short forms and haiga), and Underground
Poets have very few novices as long term members. Haiku
Hut has been a teaching board for the forms, so novices
enter, but if they're not willing to make an attempt to
learn the forms, they usually don't stay. AHA will
probably take most of that membership when Haiku Hut
closes.
If we look at the network of 'friends' as a poetic
community on MySpace, I would say bad poetry and novices
sadly way outnumber experienced, good poets.
I also feel that the bulk of experienced writers don't
join poetic communities. A number of my friends who've
had good success with their writing actively dislike
communities or boards. We rarely see well-known poets
involved in workshopping their poems in an online
community.
Derek Motion: No I think
many / most are not. but perhaps i don't really know.
Even when one has had publications, et cetera...we all
have something to learn. I imagine a good community
should combine an interesting demographic: novice to
expert.
Courtney J. Campbell: I
suppose that it depends on which community you choose to
join. In my experience, there are many novice writers on
the internet, and I think that it is great that a
democratic space is opened for all to read and expose
their work. However, there are quite a few experienced
and/or well-published poets on the internet, in Myspace,
Facebook, Thought Cafe and others. Among these writers
we can find A.D. Winans, George Wallace, S.A. Griffin,
Pris Campbell, Geraldine Green and many others, that it
would be quite a stretch to call "novice".
Have you ever come across a poem you
thought should be considered for Best American Poetry?
Edward Nudelman: That's a great question, and the
obvious answer is no. But, seriously, I've come across
some really good poetry in our group. I think you tend
to not see the poet's best material, and understandably
so. However, it's not hard to see flashes of brilliance,
and we have seen that in our group. A lovely poem was
premiered in our group just before I came, and just a
few months ago it won the Pushcart Prize. I think that's
a model for what can happen. I've also seen a good poem
become a stellar poem after some pretty savvy
workshopping from our group. That really gets me going.
Best American Poetry? Well, perhaps the one I'm going to
submit today...
Pris Campbell: Yes,
many. One that comes to mind is 'A Thousand Saxophones'
by Lee Herrick . If I can name a second, 'The Apes of
Wrath' by S.A. Griffin.
Derek Motion: Yes
definitely. I don't want to name anyone.
I have only been the editor on two occasions, but this
year I made certain I spread the word about the book we
produce, especially to writers in my online community. I
believe it has paid dividends.
So do you see online communities as an opportunity
for writers to spread information about their
manuscripts and possibly find a publisher?
Derek Motion: Yes, sort of. The spread of
information is enabled, but I think (in this country at
least) the bodies publishing single-author poetry
collections are still unimpressed by online interaction.
This is changing though.
~~~~~~
Even though none of the poems published
from the cafe' cafe' community have been featured in
Best American Poetry, one poem posted in our
community and published later in OCHO #6 won a Pushcart
Prize - Best of the Small Presses. This poem by Lorna
Dee Cervantes "Shelling The Pecans" is
featured in the
2008 anthology. If you would like to participate in the
cafe cafe facebook community, stop by
this link.
