>>>they last only as long as the site does<<<
Old sites are archived at the Wayback Machine and elsewhere, I'm sure.
https://archive.org/web/ Parts of my PLEDGE RESTORATION PROJECT website of 1996 can still be found here. It's been said nothing ever truly dies online: an observation which scares normal people but is good for poets.
GOING VIRAL
How many poems written by a single poet reside in a culture's memory? Usually it's just one. When I type JABBERWOCKY, the name of Lewis Carrol comes to mind. But who knows other poems by this author? (I mean without looking them up.) William Carlos Williams gets THE RED WHEELBARROW, and T.S. Eliot gets two: PRUFROCK and THE WASTELAND. I think anybody here on OAF would be thrilled to have just one of their poems added to the canon which is remembered and republished, even after they're gone: I certainly would.
(Gertrude Stein, the greatest female poet of the 20th century, gets but a single phrase: "A rose is a rose is a rose....")
Poetry began as an oral art designed to be remembered and passed to future generations — hence techniques like meter and rhyme were developed to aid memorization. A poem won't long survive if it doesn't affect and alter the consciousness of a generation. Putting the poem on paper can help the process, but it's the generational consciousness which matters: not the paper and ink.
The Internet far surpasses paper printing when it comes to distributing text to a wide audience. The first is stored in electrons which travel by wire and wireless transmission such as satellite and wifi; the second is stored on paper which must be shipped by car, truck, or through the mail. I don't know the differential between how many people have read my poetry online vs. in print, but the numbers hugely favor the digital method.
The goal of a poem is to get itself copied and distributed by strangers. If the poem sits where it was originally published or posted, nothing will happen. "My Universe" — a didactic poem of mine — went viral in '96 off a small email discussion group for atheists. (The poem is a critique of how atheism was being represented to the public at that time.)
Back in the 90's you could Google three or four pages of results to find this poem spread out across the western world. Now, twenty-three years later, the search is down to just a few links [my universe + lance jencks]. But it's still there!
A DISEMBODIED ENERGY
I've always wanted to be a disembodied energy instead of a corporal body, and I'm sure this relates to my lifelong tremor: things I physically touch tend to break. I couldn't repair cars, but I could type ... why I became a writer, for the typing.
So digital distribution is a natural for me: I don't have to handle objects.
(Now I'm facing a question of how much longer I'll be able to type. We shall see.)
WHAT MATTERS IS THE POEM
Too many poets focus on what their poem can do for them. "Will it earn me money? Will it bring me recognition or fame?"
This is not what poetry is about. A great poem produces a global change of consciousness ... an "ah-ha" moment when those who encounter the poem see or feel something new and different. Something worth preserving.
I understand how difficult it is to release a poem online without knowing where it will wind up or who will see it ... we all want credit for what we do.
Setting aside financial renumeration ... pretty much a fool's errand in American poetry! ... setting money aside, I find that people
want to credit my name when they copy & repost my online poems. Indeed, because the name is always attached to the poems, I've never once seen one reproduced without it.
(If people like your poem, they will also be interested in you.)
CONCLUSION
Did I mention a teacher in Tibet - himself a Tibetan - recently contacted me on Facebook Messenger to say he finds my writing "beautiful"? Yes, and the same thing has happened with people in India & Germany as well.
(Foreigners appreciate our language more than we do!)
In my view, being a poet is not about fame, and certainly not about money. It's about the experience.
P.S. Just set up a new group on Quora called Poet's Corner. We'll see what happens there.
