That Bloggin’ Writer
by
Norbert Blei

I’ve never been comfortable with the word ‘blog’ and never refer to myself
as a ‘blogger,’ which sounds too ‘techy’ to suit me, slightly Sci-Fi-ish (“Revenge of the Blog”), something like an indecent act: ‘Yeah, he’s bloggin’ all the time..”

For me, to ‘blog’ is simply to write—and get it out there. Faster than the U.S. Mail. Faster than old fashioned print-publishing. Write. Send. Receive. It’s that quick and simple. Bear in mind, it’s often careless, off-the-cuff writing, that could use more thought and style—which only comes the old fashioned way: time and revision, revision, revision. Nevertheless—it is what it is. Does what you may need to do.

Granted it takes a little chutzpah to think people have nothing better to do than read what you have to say. You are forever (when time permits) attempting to put up your words (close and personal) in their face—if you can only get into their e-mailbox. If you can only get readers to click to your immortal words. If you can only get them to respond (agree/disagree) to what you have to say. If you can only entice them to regularly entertain your divine madness and confirm what a genius you are and, furthermore, direct others to your site or e-mail address.

Sure, it’s just another ego trip. But, what pursuit of the arts isn’t? If you don’t believe in yourself as a writer, no one will believe in what you write.

So, one of the things we are doing here is exercising egos. Because they need it.

Every ‘blogger’ goes his or her own way. That’s important. For me it’s another way to start the day. Which I used to spend typing letters, Xeroxing and sending articles, poems, and whatever else was on my mind, because I thought it should be on your mind too.

Blogging, like writing, is self-discovery. (‘Oh, did I say that? Hmmm…I’m not sure where that thought, image, poem, essay came from.’) Which is a big part of what the reader may or not glean from the purpose, depth, honesty of the blogs he reads.

‘Blog,’ as we all know, is a contraction of ‘web log.’ Which is really what’s going on here for most bloggers: keeping a journal of sorts. With two distinct differences: distribution (wide/unknowable) and privacy (virtually none). Not quite the old fashioned way. In one’s heart of hearts, one may still prefer (and practice): pen to paper. Notes to nowhere but the self. Put it down. Put it away.

Yet, we write to communicate. To tell it to someone. So what else is really going on, what continues to go on here regardless of the method of transmission, is learning. On both sides of the screen.

Bloggin’-writers with nothing to say, or the inability to say anything with style or authority, fade quickly from view after the first few feeble attempts to get their names and words up in cyber light. It’s a hard but quick lesson: “I have nothing to say. And nobody’s listening.” Back to solitaire. i-Tunes. e-bay.

I write to four distinct sites, two of which (“Poetry Dispatch” and “Notes from the Underground”) you can only receive if I have you in my e-mail address book, (nblei@dcwis.com Write: “Add me.” and you’re in).

“Poetry Dispatch” is exactly that: Poems I dispatch to friends and strangers on a regular basis—not everyday, but whenever the mood strikes and time permits. What kind of poems? Poems I like. And I sense others will too. My range is eclectic. From the Bible to Bukowski. From haiku, the small poem, prose poem, narrative poem, Beat poem, traditional poem, political poem, experimental poem…to any poet I may have read in a mainstream anthology, to the most obscure poet I read last night in the littlest little mag, so small it fits in the palm of my hand. No, I’m not open to submissions. Yes, occasionally someone sends me a poem for whatever reason and I may respond: “Do you mind if I send it out?” But don’t expect answers. Acceptances. Miracles. Writing is a tough game. Nourish silence—and rejection. It’s good for you.

“Notes from the Underground” is something else again. Sometimes political. Satirical. Philosophical. Comical. Revolutionary. Often, SURPRISE! It’s what we need to know but no one else is telling us. It caters to the rebel in my (our) soul. Mostly prose. Rarely poetry. Wide open. Dark. Until the light goes on.

My two websites are: www.norbertblei.com (with a link, I must confess, to: Blei’s Blog); and www.bleidoorcountytimes.com --which is something else entirely. One frustrated, banned local writer’s attempt to fight back at publications (mostly owned by a mega newspaper chain) of no news, no fun, no criticism, but mostly advertising. The D. C.TIMES is my paper, to speak my ‘truth to local power’. Open the home page, peruse any/all of the links featuring my staff of celebrated writers. Read the archives. Enjoy. There’s something here for everyone. All the writing on these two “www” sites is archived. Not so on the other two: “Poetry Dispatch” and “Notes from the Underground.” Though this could change, if I figure a way to do it that isn’t costly. (Websites are expensive to create and maintain. I have no advertisers. In a couple of instances, out of the blue, a reader will send me $5, a check for $10 or $20 in appreciation. I charge no subscription fees. I’ve been at this four years now and can barley afford to keep it going and still deal with my own writing of books.)

www.norbertblei.com is the most personal, the most literary of the sites. No axe to grind here. It’s my life, real and imagined, my thoughts. I don’t write to it as often as I’d like, because these take so much more bloggin’ time to write. But it’s a good place to work things out for writing that may later appear in book-form. Material of all sorts: The continuing saga of one writer in mid-America at this place in time. Or at least as much as I care to share for the moment, in this bloggin’ way.

The main writing link (Blei’s Blog) is sometimes self-indulgent yet fulfills this writer’s need to both tell and teach. It’s directed to anyone and everyone who writes, has written, wants to write, or just enjoys reading about literature, the writer, writing, the writing life. There’s plenty here to chew on. Plenty writers and books for readers to follow up on. Click to ARCHIVES in this link, and you will find pieces on everything from stories, to book reviews, to monthly journal entries, to personal essays on: Beckett, Saroyan, Ray Bradbury, Kenneth Patchen, Anna Kavan, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Bly, Czeslaw Milosz, James Thurber, etc. There is so much more I want to add to this site. Everyday, twice a day or more, I think of something else I want to write. I am anxious to continue.

Now, if you follow me, what I’ve done here is write an essay (which has taken me a few days to complete…and days later yet again revise the final draft!), to be confirmed eventually in print in “Free Verse,” while at the same time committed an act of bloggin’ which I will eventually enter on my website, www.norbertblei.com in Blei’s Blog--which someday, in some way, shape, or form, may even find itself book-bound.

That’s what this bloggin’ writer’s all about.

***

[Ed. Note: The above essay was written late last year upon request for Issue #88-2006 of FREE VERSE (Linda Aschbrenner, editor/publisher, M233 Marsh Road, Marshfield, WI 54449). Ever since writing it, I have found myself needing to say more. “That Bloggin’ Writer, Part II” will appear shortly, Blei’s Blog on the www.norbertblei.com website.]