I am in the process of redesigning both the World Class Poetry website and this blog. It’s a slow go as the poetry site alone has more than 200 pages and I’m making some significant improvements that I hope will make the site more social. Aside from that, I am also continuing to review books and work my day job, which many people have told me not to quit. They’ll be glad to know that I’ve taken their advice.

At any rate, just dropping in for a report. Look for more news soon.

I will still be involved enough that I will not be completely rid of certain interactions. I’ll still be involved in baseball and Cub Scouts and baby sitting the little red head who thinks I hung the moon. But as for refereeing spats between the two school-age children, I’ll leave that for their mother and her juvenile live in.

My wife and I have looked forward to being grandparents again for about a year now, and when it finally happened I started getting a run of bad news, which only served to steal much of the associated joy. To begin with, this blog started suffering from severe technical issues a couple of weeks before the children left us. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time working on fixing those, to little avail.

Then, on the weekend that we dropped the little ones off to live with their incubator, I learned that my last surviving grandparent – my mother’s aunt and adopted mother – died unexpectedly from an injury she sustained from bumping her head after a fall. She was 92.

Such events cause an overwhelming feeling of mortality – and fragility. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt more human than I did on hearing that the only grandmother, out of three, that I ever really knew is no longer with us. But I’ve always seen the final curtain call as just another event in this stage play we call life.

One day I was sleeping in a tent with my wife enjoying the rain pelting us from above and the next I was a few thousand feet in the air on my way to spend critical moments with family members I hadn’t seen in more than 10 years. In some cases it was more than 20. Thinking on it now reminds me of The Big Chill.

The juxtaposition of these two events in my life – the grandchildren, who have been more like children to us, leaving us and the passing of Aunt Bab, as we all called her – sufficiently distracted me from my day-to-day routine that I’ve found it difficult to focus on the details of my business or spend the time necessary to fix the technical issues related to this blog. Finally, I was able, just last night, to see to it that the blog was restored and made live again. Although I am not completely sure it is 100%.

In restoring the blog I’ve had to take some drastic measures, one of which was deleting all WordPress subscriber accounts. If you registered as a user of World Class Poetry Blog so that you could leave comments then I’m afraid you’ll have to re-register. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it was a necessary action. Furthermore, if you want to comment on the blog in the future you’ll have to login to comment every time. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience this will cause but it is a necessary security measure.

There have been times in the past month when I wanted to write a post to inform you of new web pages or developments at World Class Poetry and have been unable to. I will let you in on some of those in just a few minutes.

For now, I’d like to thank you for your continued interest in this blog and for those of you who continue to come back and read, comment, and needle me when I’m wrong, I am eternally grateful for your presence. This blog, I’d like you to know, is not all about me even if it sometimes appears that I think it is. I would not have a platform were it not for readers and commentators so I appreciate all of you. Please keep coming back and interacting.

As I approach this blog’s second anniversary I can now (hopefully) begin integration of a new growth and development phase that I’ve been contemplating for a few months. You’ll begin to see gradual changes in the blog over time as I make the move to a larger, more diverse publishing enterprise. I’ll be discussing this in more detail in future posts.

Meanwhile, what’s new with World Class Poetry? A lot, actually. For starters, I’ve added a new member of my team, which to date has consisted solely of I (and you thought there was no I in team). Jack Peachum is a poet who has been published widely in print and I’m proud to say that he is now writing content for World Class Poetry. So far he has produced three new pages for me, namely:

• Imagism Poetry Movement
• Symbolism Poetry Movement
• Ezra Pound: Modernism’s Man Of Action

I think you’ll find Jack’s prose to be very readable and his knowledge of the subject matter unmatched. The information presented is still elementary. Many high school students use the site for research so we are trying to maintain a certain level of elementary knowledge to encourage more of this. However, plans are under way to include more in-depth material on the subject matter of poetry in all its manifestations.

In addition to Jack’s pages – and there will be many more soon – I’ve added some new book reviews:

• Poems For The Utopian Nihilist by Milo Martin
• Whispers of Madmen by Matt Fontana and R.G. Bell

And two new issues of Hyperbole have gone out as well:

• The Whispers Of Ezra Pound (And Other Madmen)
• Where The Poets Live

Plus, there are three new digital chapbooks available for download along with the World Class Poetry Toolbar. Their titles are:

• Irreverent Twits
• The Heart Of A Sailor by M. Kei
• Dinkle Dorkle And Other Nut Cases

Finally, I was hoping to have this out much sooner, but as the story goes, life has its own plans.

I’ve performed my poem “Cigar” in video for you. It’s not much, just a little play with lighting and a scruffly, ugly face. Something I’ve been looking forward to doing for a while, playing around with video. I hope to be able to do more of this in the coming year. Meanwhile, enjoy “Cigar”:

Just one more thing: If the site goes down again, I apologize. I half expect it to and half not. If it does it will mean I have a database dysfunction. I’ve tested everything else. But if it does then I will do what I need to do to re-emerge and continue producing commentary on 21st century poetry. Bear with me and I’ll do my best to fight through the pain. With your help, World Class Poetry Blog will rise again and live forever.

His name is Will and he’s a high school teacher and poet who writes the blog The Search for Health in Decadence.

Will’s first blog post will appear here on World Class Poetry Blog tomorrow evening. I hope you’ll wait in eager anticipation, as I will be, and be on the edge of your seat as he shares his thoughts on simulacra and poetry.

Tomorrow night. Be here.

• Divinull (very prolific video uploader)
• Living Passion
• Janet Kuypers (many of you are likely familiar with her)

I’ve also got a place set aside for Billy Collins. In the next few days I’ll be adding some videos by Billy Collins and you can watch them on the WCP website.

All the videos are courtesy of YouTube. More videos are sure to come. You’ll likely see videos soon that depict the poems of Edgar Allan Poe and a couple from film artist Tim Burton as well. Be on the lookout for more great poetry videos in the future as I intend to update these pages as often as I can. If you have produced any poetry videos of your own and you’d like to be included then leave me a comment on this post or contact me through World Class Poetry.

To stay current on poetry videos as they are developed for World Class Poetry, download the World Class Poetry Toolbar.

With few exceptions, I have written to this blog every day since last September 10th. I am just a few days from celebrating my first anniversary. With regret, I believe it is time to change my posting policy from daily to irregular.

There are several reasons why I feel this move is necessary, chief among them is the fact that other things are being neglected. It has been days since I have even looked at Rumsfeld’s Sandbox. I typically spend between an hour and three hours on a blog post. If I don’t have that much time to put my thoughts together into a post then I just toss together a few links, but when I do that I feel as if I am cheating my readers and I hate to do that. If I write a really good blog post that deserves a good reading then I put in the requisite time and thought. It eats up my entire evening. Most nights, by the time I finish blogging it is after, or nearing, midnight and time for bed.

Since I run a full-time business I have certain obligations that I can’t put aside. My wife likes it when I spend time with her. And the grandchildren need their attention.

I started this blog in part because I wanted to use it to attract new visitors to my informational website, World Class Poetry. It’s done that well, but it’s also taken on a life of its own. At times, the blog has been more prominent than the website. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Nevertheless, I feel that shifting my priorities back to the website and my poetry will not only get me back on track with my goals, but it will also mean that when I do blog that I can ensure that my readers get the full force of my imagination. As I’ve said before, I like expository writing as much as I like composing poetry, but one must take priority over the other. At this time, it needs to be the poetry.

I have promised my readers a post on the future of the epic. I started it this afternoon. After spending three hours on gathering thoughts and putting them into form, I realized that I still had a lot of work to do on the subject. It wasn’t ready for publishing. Therefore, I still have nothing but a promise and a partially composed post on the future of poetics. I will spend some more time on it before I unleash it on you.

The thought process that goes into expository writing – the type that I like to do – is very intense. I feel like I’m back in college, checking facts against each other, comparing ideas from various sources, and forming my own judgments based on my research and carefully conforming prejudices. I have plans for more projects of that nature that will require my time to research and write. Alas, I am only human and cannot do it all.

It is likely that I will get back to writing daily at some point. I cannot as of now say when. But for the time being I will write only when I have something significant to say and when I feel I can say it significantly well. My next post will likely be the one I started today. It may be tomorrow. It may be two days from now. It may be longer. But it will be finished before I let it go. Feel free to continue posting your comments. I am not leaving; I am just inhaling.

I had written the post I promised three days ago – on the two poetry markets and how to reach them. But I’m not going to recreate it now. I’ll just let this post serve as the reminder that I’m back in the groove. Over the next few days, expect a few of my usual grandiose sentiments:

• The two poetry markets
• What long-term narratives in the 21st century will look like (thanks G.M. Palmer)
• And whatever else I can think of

Rest assured, I have not given up my license to practice philosophy or forgotten about the need for a solid 21st century poetics. Stay tuned faithful readers.

I tried to get much more done this week, but I was able to get done what I got done. That includes the addition of a poetry book review and the accompanying update of my reviews window page.

In addition to the above pages, I’ve managed to convert the following pages to the new website layout:

• Childrens Poetry
• Dr Suess
• Harlem Renaissance
• Langston Hughes

I’ve got more updates and upgrades on the way. Of course, you can keep track of all new web pages and updates by subscribing to the WCP newsletter, Hyperbole, which I hope to someday turn into a full-fledged e-zine, or by downloading the free World Class Poetry Toolbar.

Coming soon on this blog: The two poetry worlds and how to market to them. Keep reading.

I had prepared myself to write one of my philosophical posts on a topic related to writing today, but as I sat down to write, I’d forgotten the topic I was to write on. It was important earlier in the day when I thought of it, but as is the case sometimes, I got so busy with events that I didn’t have the time to stop and write down the idea. And I didn’t have a pen and notepad with me either. Dawg!

But while I did manage to let my mind slip, I also managed to get a little bit of writing done elsewhere. I kicked off the morning with this op-ed post at a new gig I thought I’d try. This afternoon I updated a few pages on the World Class Poetry site, and I also managed to add a new feature to the WCP Toolbar, namely, the addition of the PennSound PoemTalk, a daily podcast with Al Filreis. So I have had a fairly productive day.

Ordinarily, I’d have the grand kids today, but that didn’t happen so I took advantage of the solitude and got some work done. I also wrote a book review that will be published in the next couple of days. I love days like that.

My hope is that I’ll sleep well and remember tomorrow what it was I wanted to write about and be in a position to write it down or start the post. I don’t like being without my tools for very long.

If you get a chance to look at the new design I’d appreciate it if you’d drop by and take a look, read some of the reviews even. Your feedback would also be appreciated. If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you to browse through the book reviews and then come back here to the World Class Poetry Blog and tell me what you think of the new design. Does it work? Did I leave anything out? Are there any problems? Be honest. I can take it on the chin. And I’d like to fix any issues before I roll out the new design for the entire website.

As an aside, Robert Lee Brewer at Writer’s Digest’s Poetic Asides blog asked his Facebook friends for some pointers in writing a bio. Here’s what they said.

For those interested, check out my new design. Don’t forget to come back and give me your feedback.