HAPPY DAY - 10\5\2015

 

 From "Facebook Memories"....

On Triond Writing Site - 200,994 Views now for my "Crake Cake" piece (piece of cake indeed), 80,190 for "Beat the Bullies".

Wot I Do

 

For many years I have posted much of my work online: on “Hello Poetry” dot com, “VoicesNet” dot com, Blogspot Blogger by Google and “Poemhunter” dot com, in that order. Also some work of others etc. Right now I have posted the following number of pieces on these sites:

HP – 390 (488 Followers), VN – 598 (330563 Views), My Poetry Blog 371 Poems (23558 Views), Poemhunter – 535 (Views Unknown) – some have been deactivated but otherwise represent a complete catalogue of my posted poems (every poem is on Poemhunter that is).

(C) PB 17\1\2021.

I am a Writer

 

(Picture Credit - Typer from Pexels)

I am a writer. Of that there is no doubt. I am constantly writing in my hardback diary – annual usually bought in Asda or Tesco. Right now I am using a grey 2020 diary. And I write all sorts of other notes.

But to describe what I mainly do, let me use a word that is currently slang, and that is “Typer”. For I spend hours on this laptop and on my Smartphone, typing and posting things on the internet. I feel sure I do this much more than actual writing with a “Byro” pen.

People might even describe me as a Poet. Well, I have my moments, I feel. But I see myself more as a “Word Composer”. Indeed I “recruit” words to work for me, words that I have gleaned from the light reading I have done over the years.

Yes, I would never describe myself as one of the world’s Readers. Sure, I like a read now and then, and I appreciate good literature a lot, but no I don’t read much. My old teachers will be turning in their graves now, for to be fair they tried their best to get me to read more! They were right. I would have benefitted a great deal for reading more. But you can’t put the clock back.

Talking of the past, I actually started out as a “Story Writer”. My “Compositions” (as they called them) at Junior School were all stories. I wrote about gladiators, the Loch Ness Monster, Space and much more. In my early teens I wrote stories in disused school exercise books, on football and then science fiction themes. Some of my early football stories were lists of football results. My Autistic Traits really shone through in those early days hehe. But now I mainly write Free Verse. Occasionally I even write some rhymes or some “Iambic Metered Verse”.

Which brings me to some thoughts on Poetic Technique. Elsewhere I explained that my current “Free Verse” approach comes from some Unknown Teacher who wrote a book about getting schoolkids to express themselves with full freedom. “Just use short lines to be punchy and longer lines to be fulsome, rambling, academic, lingering or otherwise lengthy” is more or less what he would have told his young students. I am still following his instructions. Basically I start a new line or “verse” whenever it “feels right”.

When I read something, I usually use my “Inner Voice” so I can “hear it”. I can use any voice I choose for this. I can use the voice of Patrick Stewart, Morgan Freeman, Tom (Stewart) Baker (fourth Doctor Who) or whoever I wish (no pun intended). Or I can have Elvis or Freddie Mercury sing it to me. So when I type\write something I usually say it in my head first, before hitting those keys or scrawling with that pen. I think this is very important. Basically I go for the “Right Sound” first and foremost. No skim reading for me! (Well, very rarely). And precious little “scanning” (for metre) these days. Many people tell me that the majority of individuals mainly skim read: but they are missing out enormously. For me, poetry must be read aloud to be fully enjoyed. It is a “verbal” tradition.

For many years I was ruled by the tyranny of having to make my verses “scan correctly”. Countless poets still are! What so many forget is that techniques such as “using Stress” need to be used for a purpose. The best political speeches, for example, use “pitch, pace, power and pause” to provide impact. Poetry is the same. Look at Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be…” This is great use of Iambic Rhythm. Or rather, of Stress. Simples.

Words are both magical and musical. The Ancient Greeks knew this. They used long and short vowels rather than stressed with unstressed (if I understand this right). In short, they used the musicality of words, writing poems best sung.

In other words, poetry doesn’t have to look right so much as sound right. Of course, “Concrete Poetry” etc. is quite another matter I suppose. I once typed a poem in the shape of an eye, but that was that for me. What I love is Musical Poetry, or at least “Verbal” Verse. There you are – a bit of alliteration to boost your day. Lyrical lullabies are loved by many. Point Made I think.

Paul Butters

© PB 29\11\2020.

My Top Ten Poems Ever on Hello Poetry com, as of 16\3\2020

(Picture Credit - Readyto go net - Mainly Ed Sheeran Top Ten).

 18.9k Views – Me, Paul Butters

15.1k – Bonfire Night

11.5k – Jacob Gamble (Clerihew)

11.5k – Norman Stevens Gets Evens – by Norman Stevens

10.5k – Rap Attack

9.4k – Frenetic Genetics

9.0k – Lazy Sunday

6.6k – Chuck Berry

6.0k – Mist

5.9k – Giraffe

5.9k – Dem Phones.

Paul Butters

© PB 16\3\2020.

Found THIS on Facebook "Memories"...

"On Triond: my "Crake Cake" blog has now had 213,256 Views and "Beat the Bullies" 85,466. 85% of my views are from USA, 0% from UK!!!"

Just a small piece of "history". The Triond com site vanished early the next year. Of course it's "Quality" that counts rather than "Views" but hey I like my bit of fun. I still regularly type and post poems onto "Hello Poetry com" then copy them onto "Voicesnet com", my poetry Blogger Blog and finally "Poemhunter com". Get some nice comments etc. on the poetry sites, which keeps me contented.

Paul Butters 17\6\2019.

Our Education System Stinks from the Writing Collection of Paul Butters, UK

(Picture Credit - Bigstock\TeacherVision)

Just posted on VoicesNet - a slightly amended version of my "Planet Paul" blog entry...

Our Education System Stinks from the Writing Collection of Paul Butters, UK

Writing Online

(Picture Credit - PSUCA)

Writing Online is what I do most these days. On Facebook it's every day, of course. But otherwise on “Hello Poetry”, “VoicesNet”, “Poemhunter” and several of my own Google “Blogger\Blogspot” blogs.

The other day I did some checking-back. I thought that the “Triond” writing site ended years ago. I Googled to find out. The best source I found on this question was myself! From what I can gather, Triond vanished from the web around March 2016! Not long before that, they got rid of their vaunted “Forum”. Then their domain licence ran out and they couldn’t be bothered to renew it.

From about 2008 or so, Triond was everything to me. I wrote many blogs\articles on there because they gained far more views, comments and money(!) than stories and poems. But I still posted lots of stories and poems on Triond too. Then, of course, there was the Forum. I found it utterly addictive, even though it was full of junk. Someone later reported that a “Magog”, a Troll-like destroyer named after a race of “baddies” on sci-fi series “Andromeda”, took down that Forum. I was “there” and still “fighting” that Magog when the Forum disappeared.

Triond bought me a few good table tennis bats, but not much more. But back then it was where I “lived” as an online writer. I miss it. Still have a fair number of “Trionders” (fellow-writers) as Facebook Friends and still play “Fantasy Premiership” with some of them.

“After Triond” it has been just about all poetry for me. This week I wrote three table tennis blogs for a change, but this was exceptional. But I think I need to get back to some blog and story writing. That’s partly why I am typing this right now.

For the record I now have 427 poems on “Poemhunter” – just about my whole “portfolio”- 431 officially as 3 of them are stories and one is by my sister Joan Priestley. There are 281 of my poems on “Hello Poetry”, along with 3 by my pub-lunch-buddy Norman Stevens and 1 by Elizabeth Squires (unnamed). (Sorry for the Americanism there ha ha). On VoicesNet I have 350 poems (it says), Viewed 145,936 times (all of them being on Poemhunter too) and 125 “Others” (stories and blogs), viewed 92,794 times. My Poetry Blog contains 266 Poems (it says) and my “Story Blog” has 28 pieces. My main “blog blog” has just 18 items but there are maybe 50 more blog entries around my more “specialised” blogs. Needless to say, all my blogged-poems are on Poemhunter too.

My most Viewed Blog Ever was the fake news special “Crake Cake”, which as reported earlier received 217,390 Views on Triond by September 2015 – about 6 months before that website vanished like a modern day Atlantis. As regards poetry, “Me, Paul Butters” is my most-Viewed poem – On “Hello Poetry” – at 18,600+.

Enough of boring stats. After all, my best viewed pieces have been a spoof blog about a “health food” and a self-centred poem. Which brings me to a slight concern: are these online writing sites an extension of that worldwide phenomenon called “Social Media? 

On television they keep telling us that social media is “addictive” and potentially harmful. The theory goes that getting “Likes”, “Comments”, “Shares”, “Views” etc. gives you a Dopamine or Serotonin High. Or if you prefer, a boost of Endorphins or Oxytocin. Which of course is addictive. Getting few Views or Likes of course has the opposite effect on you. Apparently mobile apps etc. use bright colours and other “temptations” to brighten up your online experience.

I must admit, I personally “use” “Hello Poetry” more than any other site because there my poems usually “trend” and receive many views and favourable comments. VoicesNet is quite good to me too and Poemhunter has improved recently after a bad slump (for everybody active there). Interesting too that Poemhunter bucked up when it got rid of its Forum. On the other hand I confess that on sites where I’ve received harsh criticism, I haven’t gone back. All this is surely “human nature”.

But worry not, dear reader. I still have a sense at the back of my mind whether a poem I write is “any good”. Sometimes people even agree with my judgements. At other times my more “inspired” and “hard worked” poems just get ignored. But having done an English Literature Degree I’d like to think I learnt some “Critical Sense”. Yes that’s a James Reeves reference. I recall that he described true poetry as “magic”.

At the end of the “Critical Sense” book there are some “samples” of poetry from a wide variety of poets. Reeves merely numbers them and invites you to “tell” who has written what from your instincts. I was very good at that. I did much the same on some “University Challenge” questions the other night.

But I digress. What I’m trying to say is that I still have a sense of what might be “good poetry”. “Me, Paul Butters” as a poem is not very good and no number of “Views” from others will convince me that it is.

So from now on I feel that I need to stop being such a “View Whore” and strive instead for more Quality. Do I feel another poem coming on? Maybe soon. But when it comes I will be unable to resist it. I can barely stop myself from writing. It is a compulsion. I have to do it. And do it I will.

Paul Butters

© PB 3\8\2018.