DISQUS

L. L. , let's just say I never out grew play.

Amy, oh goody! I can't wait to see it!

Paul, sorry about the confusion.

I should have made it clear that Paul is also a Christian. He made it clear that he was not at all threatened by "Godbloggers."

Paul is a great guy. VERY encouraging--and doing a good job of living out his faith without necessarily wearing his faith on his sleeve.

Shep, you mentioned the generalization of being "one of those Godbloggers." The conference set up actually encouraged this. All of the Godbloggers had a special colored ribbon under our names to distinguish us from the others.

The point here was not to criticize Paul. I was just struggling with my own issues and found it so odd that even another Christian recognizing me as a "Christian blogger" bothered me somehow. Not because of what Paul had done but because of what we Christians do to encourage that kind of thinking.

Wearing special purple ribbons. Calling ourselves Godbloggers. Etc.

I think it would bother me just as much to be a Manblogger or something.

No worries, L.L. Gerard Manley Hopkins (the guy I quoted for the spondee) developed his own style of meter that doesn't count unstressed syllables at all. It's called Sprung Rhythm--and the only syllables that matter are STRESSED.

: )

Monica, the gift economy thing is really important to me too.

Merrie, if you figure it out, let me know. I think more and more I do it on compulsion. Is that bad?

Ann, thanks for the encouragement. Sometimes publishing poetry here feels like an odd thing to do.

David, it was INCREDIBLY great to hang out in Vegas.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm just trying to engage folks here as an excellent blogger. I figure if I can earn credibility that way, I'll be on the right track.

I'm just trying to work with excellence and integrity in the industry. (If the blogosphere can be called an industry.)

Dean, thanks for the trackback! When it comes to Carolinian sports, I'm pretty clueless--though I hope your smackdown smacked the direction of your preference yesterday.

Sam, funny what a two guys can do with the internet and a little vision. That's the power that will always be here. If you get the right idea, it can take off like crazy.

B. Currant, careful there. Me own lady fires a blunderbuss with deadeye accuracy!

Kate and Tara, you win the secret contest I was running to see who was paying attention.

Customer service is so important.

Alas, the contest prize is nothing more than this little note of encouragement to you that you are doing a good job with making your customers/users feel valued.

Mmmm. Chicken pancakes. Why doesn't IHOP have that on their menu yet?

Robert, I agree completely that both are important. I'm wondering about this from a writer's perspective, though. How does a writer emphasize both? Or which one do you emphasize more in your own writing?

Sam, I have to confess that I've only read excerpts from "On the Road" and "Travels with Charley"! I hope that doesn't make me a bad person. And I boycotted "Bridge to Terabithia" (sorry, Walden) because I hated the book so much as a kid. Mean, mean spirited book.

I should probably give it another chance.

But, I'd say The Road is a good example of plot/character--emphasizing character. As well as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell--which has a great plot, but ultimately emphasizes characters as the title suggests.

So I guess I'm a character man.

Sam, I really like the dinner party metaphor. I have to say that I'm not sure an excellent host could serve nasty food. That would make the person not an excellent host, right?

Karl, you've challenged me to rethink what I mean when I use the word plot. So. I'm thinking.

Mark, good point. For me poetry is often more like taking off to drive around the hill country with no goal except to use up some gas. It is "quite useless" as Wilde said. But for me essays, books, and stories need a definite trajectory or else I end up with something that is going to be a complete bear to revise.

L.L., just keep your self in the chair and write. You can do it.

Hey everyone. I'll be teaching a poetry workshop at Laity Lodge this weekend. We have very limited net access out there, but I'll try to pop in to address comments as I can. No promises.

In the meantime, feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. But BEHAVE!

Nancy, I love you too! You just made my day!

Nancy, that is a fun site! Thanks for sharing.

Monica, yeah. We had the perfect tree, and the kids like pirates. So.

Paul, hopefully. And I love them too. There's a tree house B&B; outside of Austin:
http://www.cypressvalleycanopytours.com/lofthav...

Robert, we ran the kids out close to bed time for the "first day" pictures. But believe me, they have pirate costumes galore.

Thanks, Rich. I have to admit: Several times throughout the process, I thought, who am I kidding? This thing is for me.

LL, that's how I got it too.

Nancy, the cave of covers is merely factual. It's where I do most of my reading. When the *&?!#*$&! book light works.

L.L., I don't think you can order direct from John. Just the publisher. Though ordering from Amazon.com helps raise his ranking there, so I don't know what's best.

Heather, wordfarm published a book of poems called Tabloid News (on their homepage, I believe) by John Leax. Hilarious and awesome poems. You can read an excerpt here: http://www.wordfarm.net/books/0974342769/

As an aside, John Poch also edits one of my favorite journals: 32 Poems. While John Leax has a fun online journal called Stonework Journal.

RLP, thanks for that.

Joffan, great point that we ARE primates. And the issue of self-awareness is interesting. I've read popular science pieces (in MIT's Tech Review, I think) summarizing research about this. Turns our that chimps and other primates have a surprisingly high level of self-awareness.

Put them to sleep, draw on their forehead with a marker, then show them a mirror and they will try to rub the mark from their head. They know the chimp in the mirror as themselves. Self-awareness.

Dolphins have it too, I've heard. I'm guessing there are levels of self-awareness, but still. We're hardly the only species that has it.

All of this should end with the caveat that I'm no scientist.

And another caveat for L.L. When I say I love sausage, I really mean it. I've been known to drive two hours for good sausage.

Oops. Earlier versions of this post referred to the poem as a sestet which is six lines. Apparently, Math Boy (me) can't count to 8. Duhr!

Also, isn't that branded gabcast player cool? I'm playing around with gabcast as an option for the Laity Lodge podcast. You can get much simpler than gabcast in my opinion. (And I've tried them all!)

Whoa, JP. That's high praise coming from you! I think you just made my week.

I'm with you on that, David. Sorry L.L. I just love meat too much to be a vegetarian. Mmmm. Sausage.

To my credit I really like fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products too.

Basically, I just like food. Food that moos as well as food that makes amber waves across our Great American plains.

Sam, I'm guessing not. But there's no telling.

I have no recollection, Senator. The archives are available upon sub poena.

Er.

I just thought we might be on the verge of beating a dead horse.

But if folks really want to talk about it more, I guess we can.