Thursday, June 26, 2008

Friends, Family, and the Poet Blogger


Image via jean paul's myspace

On the phone with my family, there is always that moment when we have exhausted all their juicy tidbits of family gossip, love life, and work drama that don't make it on to this blog. At that moment, the family member usually exclaims: "But what about you? I feel like I don't know anything about what's happening with you, in your life."

Looong silence. I'm waiting for it. I'm sitting on the edge of my chair. I'm waiting for the family member to continue by saying "And, I was on your blog, and read your incredible, new, POEM!"

The moment never happens. Instead, we discuss my desultory job search attempts, my vague dreams, my latest date--the German kid with spiky hair. I'm not sure what it is about family and poems, but there is a sort of awkwardness there. A need to tip-toe around the subject. To be fair, I have an amazing supportive family and it is largely due to the encouragement of one of my sisters that I am starting to take my writing seriously at all.

But to anyone who is a friend, family member, or acquaintance of someone who blogs, trust me. The blogger doesn't want to know what you think about their work drama, job search, or love life. The blogger just wants to know what you think about their blog.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Sad but true. Nice site...and thanks for linking to my site...I'll put a link up for yours on mine.

Cheers,

Paul

www.monkeyinmymind.com

Razorwire said...

Audience... you want comments from friends and family. Don't want much.

I think many just don't know what to say.

Commenting can be hard. And responding to a poem can be a puzzle.

But you know that. Maybe you should cross-post at other hosted blogs.

Regards,

Anonymous said...

Thank you both so much! And yes, Razorwire I must admit to agreeing that commenting can be hard. I know there are many great blogs out there that I read regularly but fail to comment on. It can take a bit sometimes to collect your thoughts I guess. Thanks for the reminder to see the flip side.

Anonymous said...

I discovered that some family members were intimidated by poems to the point of feeling nervous or afraid when I'd show them a poem. I did a brief education--repeated a couple of times--about how some people think poems are like a riddle and you have to "figure out what it means" but I see poems as "not logical, but emotional," so you just read them to see how they make you FEEL. I started getting more comments. And the anxiety level definitely decreased.

www.KellyMadiganErlandson.com

Tara said...

Hi Kelly thanks for reading and commenting! Glad to hear you've broken the family/poetry barrier. You've got a nice site for you book--looks interesting--is your poetry available anywhere online?