My Poem 'Me, Paul Butters' goes Viral on 'Hello Poetry'

Until just three days ago my most popular poems on the “Hello Poetry” website were 1) “Remember” (15\1\2014) with 3,200 Views and 2=) “Excitement” (22\1\11) and “Great Nephew Jacob…” (2\1\15) at 2,400 Views. But then I posted a new poem called “Me, Paul Butters”. Yesterday I got up at about 4AM just to check my laptop. I was utterly gobsmacked to see it had had about 5,500 Views! Then it became my first “Daily Poem” there, so even more Views (and Comments) piled in. Right now it has had 7,000 Views.

Soon this new poem might challenge my most popular poems of all: “Champion” (25\8\08) on VoicesNet (7,602 V) and “Mirror, Mirror” (10\9\12) on my Blogger Poetry Blog (7,230 V).

Of course, I have no idea why any of these poems went “viral”. IMHO I have written many, much better poems. For the record, my most comprehensive collection of my poems is on “Poemhunter”, which holds 240 poems (including a handful of stories).

Anyway, here is the poem in question:

“Me, Paul Butters”

I’m no author, novelist or poet.

I’m just Me,

And don’t I know it.

I don’t need to be classified,

As long as I’m writing, I’m satisfied.

Typing out words, line by line,

I don’t care if they don’t rhyme.

I don’t care if my verses don’t scan:

I’m not always an Iambic Man.

I just say what I gotta say,

I’m not worried about any pay.

Words come to me without much bidding,

The world of its evils I hope to be ridding.

I love to spread lots and lots of Love,

Bringing peace to all like a messenger dove.

Things of beauty bring joy, John Keats rightly said,

To make us sleep easy when we go to bed.

So I’ll paint what I paint,

And sing what I sing,

Just letting those words

Do their magical thing.

Paul Butters

© PB 13\11\2015 (3).

(I will post the poem on my blogger poetry blog in due course). MMM it is about writing actually. And okay I’m being very honest with it. This all began when I read a lady who wrote that simply putting a novel on self-publishing site CreateSpace does not of itself make you an author. She was quite right of course but I had to think, “I might not want to be an ‘author’!” That set me off on writing the poem. Frustratingly I can’t find that woman or her blog now. If she only knew…

Maybe I’m losing my ego at last and becoming mature. Maybe! Odd thing to do, writing a poem about not writing poetry. That’s Me!

Paul Butters


20\11 PS - 8.8 K now.
24\11 - 9.5 K.
26\11 - 9.7 K.
30\11 - 9.9. Have 110 poems on HP now, apparently! 240 poems on Poemhunter.
2\12 - 10 K. Not bad for a poem about letting go of your ego, ironically.
9\12 - 10.2 K.
13\12 - 10.3.
5\3\16 - 10.7.

Where have all you UK Readers Gone???

(Picture Credit - Amazon co uk)

For years at Triond my Views were split roughly half UK and half USA. Then in 2012 I wrote “Beat the Bullies” (now 87,990+ Views) and America took over. “Crake Cake” (2014 – 215,000+ Views) compounded this. So where are you Brits?

On 6^th August 2015 my geographical Traffic Distribution (as shown on my Triond Dashboard) was USA 85%, Turkey (!) 3%, Brazil 3%, Romania 3, Germany 2, Spain 2 and Vietnam (!) 2. No UK! God Bless America.

Yet for about 4 years on Triond most of my Views came from the USA AND the UK: roughly a fifty-fifty split. Indeed there were times when the UK ruled.

Then in November 2012 my article “Beat the Bullies” emulated The Beatles in America. Again on 6^th August my View-count for Beat the Bullies was 87,982. In August 2014 I even eclipsed Myself with my “Crake Cake” spoof article: 216,042 Views – again mainly American. I don’t know why these articles were so popular in the USA, but hey, thanks over that big pond. But where did the Brits go?

Well maybe I need to write something for the Brits now. By the way, I understand (or misunderstand?) Britain is “only” England and Wales really, whereas the UK also includes Scotland and Northern Ireland (or so I just read on the web). But let’s not get bogged down with semantics. To most people the UK and Britain are much the same.

Right now, of course, the Big News in the UK is the relatively early death of Cilla Black (72). She was one of our greatest icons and closely associated with The Beatles. The UK has much to be proud of with its Music Industry. Queen, Genesis, Tom Jones, The Rolling Stones, Shirley Bassey, Bryn Terfel…

Lol, I’m reminding myself of that Norwegian football commentator Bjørge Lillelien, who in 1981 made a famous speech after Norway beat England 2-1. He said (English translation): "Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana, we have beaten them all, we have beaten them all. Maggie Thatcher, can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher? Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating!"

Good job we didn’t lose 5-0. Ha ha (No pun intended – that being almost the name of a Norwegian group).

I suppose today such a speech might include Andy Murray, Chris Hoy, Steve Redgrave, Freddie Mercury, Prime Minister David Cameron and so on. You could do the same with Canada of course: Justin Bieber…er, maybe NOT, lol.

But yes we are a proud nation. We once had the Great British Empire. I have mixed feelings about that however. Colonialism, slavery… all rather dodgy in my view. And colonialism did spawn…the USA!!!! Nuff Said. Over and Out.

(PS Yes this is a bit dated now, but the sentiments still apply).

(PPS - This was published on Triond 8\8\15 and got a princely SEVEN views to press. No change there then!!! Think I'll View it now and make it 8 lol. Incidentally my latest diet blog there is on the Most Popular list with ONE View (Me!)!!!!!!).

Paul Butters

2\11 PS - 25 Views from Portugal!!! Wow! They also like my recent poems. Thank You there.