A bit over a year ago I began this website/adventure, The Poet Projects.

Over that time I put forth about one hundred posts, mostly poems and some, like this, prose.

Reading back I can see transformation in my writing style, moving from a one sentence, meandering, moving between thoughts fluidly, no pauses save the commas, some would call it run-on style to a more direct one.

More direct as in each sentence is a paragraph.

One sentence paragraphs feel more modern, but as with all writing, they are a choice.

They feel different.

Short paragraphs make you feel like you are reading faster. 

You can’t just write one sentence paragraphs forever though. 

You lose emphasis.

The process has been enjoyable for me and one that I look forward to continuing. My goal this next year is to double my productivity, to put out over two hundred posts and, when possible, one per day. 

One per day might be tough, but I have discovered that I can work off of my phone when I’m away from my computer. In the few cases I’ve done this the poems start with lines scribbled in one of my Field Notes notebooks or in the margins of a sudoku puzzle. Then I touch them into my phone and bob’s your uncle. 

I am pretty particular about the final form my poems take. If you take the time to look at one you’ll see that they are actually png images and you can’t simply copy the text on the webpage. 

This works against me, I think, as the bots that crawl the internet can’t “read” my poems and throw them into algorithms, possibly driving more traffic to my site. 

So, after a year, I only have forty-seven or so followers. Which on the other hand is pretty amazing to me. I do almost no social media promotion, though I do have a FB page that posts the poems there, but with many fewer followers. 

I’m happy to do this quietly, though. For now. 

Next, in addition to writing more, is to send my poems out for publication in journals. Twelve years ago, when I finished my MFA in poetry and took a year sabbatical from teaching, I did send some out. Not many, but some. 

And then I went back to teaching and I stopped sending them out. Consequently, I had only a couple published. 

This website is not a publishing method, not in my mind. It is a poetry blog or perhaps just a blog that mostly puts out poems. The distinction may not be relevant in our current online, self-publishing world, but I’m holding out with this thought. When I actually get poems in a journal, that will feel like publishing. 

This is an adventure. It is a challenge. And I love it.

I’m glad that you are here for the ride. Thanks for taking the time and effort to follow along. 

There is a lot more to come.