Do personal blogs fulfill a social need that used to be satisfied by poetry?
In a recent Poetry Foundation essay, Whiting Award-winner Allison Glock argues that blog readers should turn to poems to find a more satisfying alternative to the “narcissism, vanity, [and] schadenfreude” that blogs encourage. Poet, author, and blogger Tao Lin defends blogs in his signature style, in an essay subtitled: “Blogs and the vertical integration of consciousness. Or whatever.”
Here’s more from Glock’s essay: “[Poems] endeavor to fold an entire experience, origami-like, into a few lines, getting to the bone/root/gut of the matter, the fat long ago diligently, privately boiled away. There is no waste in good poetry. (Kay Ryan.) No incomplete thoughts. (Richard Siken.) No incidental musing. (W.S. Merwin.) No cheese or bacon bits.”