Introducing myself ….

Just before Christmas, a dear friend, meditating on blows personal and political the last few years have brought, told me he wants more poetry in his life (more black and white photography, too, but he can take care of that himself). Shortly thereafter, two other dear friends urged me into this enterprise, one by lending me some hosting space and the other by helping with the vagaries of html code and blogging software. A fourth friend offered me the lovely digital portrait you see above. What else could I do, then, but start a journal, a web log, a blog? (My kids are laughing now; only a few months ago I asked them, “What’s a blog, anyway?”)

Okay, you say, the world certainly needs another blog, more of the chatter that drives us all insane, another fix for our soft addiction. I agree. My ego is showing. I can’t do politics as well as Josh Marshall or pop culture as well as James Wolcott or poetry as philosophically as Ron Silliman. But hey! that’s not my goal. All I want is to bring a little more poetry and talk of poetry into the lives of my growing group of friends. I want to shine a little light on that aspect of Kentucky culture that contains James Baker Hall, Frank X. Walker, Leatha Kendrick, Ernie O’Dell, the list goes on and on. And perhaps range out into other things that are on my mind.

In truth, I’m not sure what this blog will turn out to be. I’ve never (hello, Georgia) been very good at pen-and-ink journaling so maybe this is just a prod, a writing prompt of sorts. One thing about a blog – it is not invasive. I won’t show up unwanted in your in-box. You’ll have to come looking for me. I promise I will not be (too) self promoting. I promise to be as witty and thought-provoking as I can be. That’s a frightening promise. Having already had lots of help in doing this, I’m going to need even more help to keep it going. Please come by and see me often, let me know what’s going on, what you’re thinking.

Let’s have a conversation.