I love to write poetry. There was a time when a spiral bound notebook was my best friend, full to the bursting with youthful longings and observations in stilted rhyme. I’d like to think my poetry has matured since then, but I’m still very much untrained.
In my late teen years my poetry made an exodus from the pages of notebooks to the word processor documents on my computer. I even found myself writing poetry on a keyboard instead of with a handy pen on lined paper. For me, poetry will always be a handwritten art form, but the editing and storage aspect had become digital.
I’ve found in recent years that this is no longer the case.
I love buying small leather journals. I have at least five. Some become personal journals, some become concept and scratch books, others don’t really have a purpose and remain mostly blank. I have, however, created what I call a poetry finishing journal–the final resting place for my poems that I deem worthy of this honor. Most of my poems still go on my hard drive, but I no longer trust this as a safe medium. I’ve heard too many horror stories about burnt out drives and viruses, and though I do have a Mac, I just feel that analog is safer.
I guess you can call it my analog blog. Hey, there’s a thought for the yuppies and hipsters! I could make a fortune on overpriced faux leather journals, maybe even start a cafe with public “analog blogs” chained to reading tables so anyone can peruse the newest entries. This could be big!