Friday, September 21, 2007

Over Two Years In

Even I managed to miss the fact that this blog is now over two years’ old. I made my first post on 3 September 2005. The anniversary slipped my mind, although I’d been thinking over summer whether I wanted to continue with it after the second year.

The answer is that I’m not sure. Surroundings has a good readership (for a poetry blog), not in the same league as Ron Silliman, but enough to make writing it feel more than a conversation with myself. But it takes time – writing time that I could use productively on poems and prose. It’s not just the writing of the blog, but reading other blogs that steals time.

On the other hand, blogging does have the effect of focusing my mind on poetry and this helps my own writing. It provides a measure of entertainment and interest for readers. There is also an element of self-publicity, of ‘creating an audience’, which is nothing to be sniffed at or to be ashamed of.

So I’m in two minds.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I for one would miss it if you stopped!

Frances said...

I hope you won't give up Rob. Reading your blog gave me the courage to start one of my own. I know it is time consuming but then it is also a good showcase for your work. You could consider posting three times a week instead of everyday, perhaps.

Andrew Shields said...

I'm of three-and-a-half minds, and I can't even count them.

Unknown said...

The world would be a smaller place without you Rob - it's not just a showcase for your work, all your interesting posts about things poetic and otherwise would be sorely missed... You've put me onto some great books for a start!

Rob said...

Well, thanks.

I'm still not sure. But blogging isn't something anyone would want to do forever, is it? Maybe I'll keep going until Christmas and think about stopping again then.

Matt Merritt said...

Keep it going, Rob, it would be sadly missed. I sometimes wonder about the blogging stealing time from other writing thing, but more often than not I think writing a blog entry is a good warm-up for the serious stuff.