| homage to readers
welcome, precious reader, without you we can’t go on:
you give us audience to think out loud, like plato’s throng.
you read to reassure yourself what you believe is true,
your frames and mental models won’t accept a different view,
and so you’ve self-selected to be part of pollard’s ‘crowd’
who dare to pose the truths that others will not say aloud.
and you indulge my clumsy prose with its despairing themes:
together, we’re community, collaborating memes —
or maybe not — we’re not so joined, don’t know each other well,
we grope with awkward language and the stories that we tell.
my blog’s a raven’s croaking in the darkness ‘fore the dawn
and when i hear your hoarse reply my heart is filled with song,
your answer says “we’re not alone, there’s hope, we’re strong, we know
together there’s a better way to live, let’s make it so:
resistance isn’t futile, trust your instincts, fly with me —
the world’s a prison, yes, but there’s still time to set us free,
our ‘civilized’ behaviour’s an illusion, don’t you see?
our prison’s locks are self-imposed, and nature holds the key!”
but wait — i think i’m losing you, you start to turn away,
i’ve gone too far, presumed too much, oh, no, won’t you please stay?
i’ve oversimplified my case, it’s really more complex —
the average reader of a blog stays only ninety secs:
the time it takes a bee to pollinate a rose and flee,
the time it takes to break a writer’s heart “oh, woe is me”.
’cause reading is much harder work than writing, i’d maintain,
so here’s to you, dear reader, please do buzz my way again.
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Excellent Dave – and you managed to finish before my gnat’s brain skipped off to something new!
That was terrific Dave. Might I have your permission to post it on my blog?
Cindy — sure.
I’ve been beating myself up too, maybe partly from your beating and the knowledge that somehow we *do* have to ‘get out there’. Now I’m feeling so bruised that I had to walk away from writing for awhile. I don’t know when I’ll write another post to my blog. I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to ‘get out there’ as I wrote in my last blog entry, but I’m still here reading! Oh, and I’m not in pajamas, never was. Some of us just process things better in isolated settings. I’m glad you recognise and value that too.
Cyndy with a ‘Y’: Oh, darn, I always pictured you in pajamas ;-) I expect the reporter who described us as ‘a million guys in pajamas’ probably isn’t aware that more than half of all bloggers are female, either. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that a profession that is, on the whole, not very well paid should be a bit distraught at the thought of a million people doing the same job for free (especially since we’re not subject to the dress code).
Thanks, Dave … longer email diving a bit deeper also sent your way … hope it didn’t p u off
After a long, sloggy day, a delight to read your poem. Thanks, Dave (be well, Cyndy)
Thanks, Dave – for the poem, and for just being there.
You can picture me as happily and freely partisan wearing an oversize Kucinich t-shirt on my most comfy days, unpaid, with no restrictions to toe the corporate line. I’m allowed to take days off when I wish and to gravitate toward reading I enjoy, such as here. I wonder how many journalists have actually written a poem of appreciation to their readers. Unlocking the prison’s locks require knowledge of where the locks are located, buzzing around to share the location and reuniting again to resist the guards. Journalists are helpful with the location but the community can’t be found in their pages.
How very sweet. :) Readers do make the writers world go round, it’s true!Feithy