Here vs. there

Might I also suggest that here we may edit, revise, repost, while there once you hit send you're screwed?



Also, the throwaway nature of email vs. the less temporary (dare I say permanent?) nature of blog posts. I consider differently--more considerately--when I write for the blog--am more conscious of being clear, poised, entertaining. Emails are often sprightly carriers of info--but are also, for this reason, frequently deletable. Same difference between postal letters or cards & emails? I save letters for years, or forever. Most email isn't worthy of such luxuriance. (Is deletable a word? I'm on my second glass of wine.)



Plus, (most, at least free) blogs take up no space on one's packed-to-the-gills hard drive!



And I would just never email a poem I wrote to a bunch of strangers. I don't particularly like it when I get them, especially when the sender asks two days later: Why didn't anyone comment? I want feedback! I feel on the spot. Put upon. Can't I direct my own reading? Can't you by choosing to visit me here? Just like I choose you?



But you, you aren't strangers.



Many poets keep separate poetry blogs--compartmentalization is another way in which the modes differ. Threads get tangled--but a permalink is forever!



Afterthought: I also like the illusion that I'm really talking to myself. It's the same feeling (I suppose other people have besides myself) of writing for oneself and at the same time for an audience one can experience in a relationship with a journal. Except that feeling that somebody cares what you have to say is justified by the public blog. All writers want to be read, and the blogsphere enables feel us to less narcissistic about it when we have evidence (like comments, trackbacks, blogrolls) that others are reading.



Oh, fie! Go read Nick. He's much better at this than I am!



So there.