The popularity of poetry ........

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   ahorsebackposted 10 years ago

   I felt pretty good about  my first experience with Hubpages ,  i wanted  a to express a  fairly new found need to write , I started with poetry  [old  stuff and new ], short stories and  of coarse ....."forums " ..I am now beginning my fourth year on Hubpages !   Perhaps it was just a way for my  needs to be realized .   Lets face it ,  most of those who write need to be read ? Right ,, ....... and yet it seems for whatever reason , rhyme or  wrong !  I am beginning to wonder about how important writing really is to me !   Personaly , I'm thinking , why ? Why should I offer my talents for nothing , although I have not published anything in any place other than here    HubPages  seems to be losing its appeal !  I know many have complained that readership is down , that page views are declining , .That this great place of hubs , perhaps is losing its very appeal ?   Does anyone  else wonder about your presense on hubs ?   Do you feel a bit  exploited , or is the life of a poet just that we aren't that popular ?    Let  me know how U feel !

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      ahorsebackposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I guess this says it all .....

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      @ jhamann, I agree: I feel poetry is still alive somewhere and always will be. There are those, like me and many of my friends, who love to read and write poetry.
      
      @ ahorseback. I love poetry, yours, mine and may others here on HubPages. However, I feel that poetry and creative stories have taken a back seat to "how to s" and recipes. To me, writing involves creativity, passion, spirituality, and inspiration. I thought about writing some "how to" hubs and have submitted some recipes, but, I am just not greatly inspired to do so. My genre is creative writing, history, culture, spirituality, and poetry. I will just keep writing with passion in my selected field and let it be as it is. Accolades, scores, etc. are not that important to me. Comments on my hubs are always much appreciated. I write from my heart and soul and this is what is important to me -- to get the words out, share with others, makes me feel I have accomplished my goals. If my writing helps anyone in any way, that is a joy and a blessing for me. Simple.

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         ahorsebackposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Phiyllis, Thank you for that , I guess I seemed to need to hear it from someone else , it IS the connecting in comments isn't it ! Your are always so nice ,thank you !

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   jhamannposted 10 years ago

   ahorseback, I write poetry for Hubpages and most of the time feel frustrated and abused.  But for some reason someone leaves a comment and I am writing again and a rush of work comes out of me.  I feel like I have to distance myself a little to keep from getting too involved at times, it helps me to maintain balance in this topsy turvy world of Hubpages.  The funny thing is that through all the ups and downs I have created a rather thick body of work that I may not have created without a little push by the Hub community and whether I publish it or not the fact remains it is there and was created by my hand.  I will be around through any changes and even though I do not always leave comments I am reading the poetry that is written and feel that poetry is still alive somewhere.

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      ahorsebackposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      jhamann,Diddo my friend ! Thank you

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   Alexander Markposted 10 years ago

   Ahorseback, I have not been following the community very much here, but I am reading a few comments like these and watching my numbers go way down, and I feel like you do - what's the point? Of course there's a point but as Phyllis said, this website is becoming a place for how to's and recipes and I think that may be why HP is losing its appeal. As far as making money, I am coming to the realization that there is no steady money to be found online. I think a good blog might be the way to go, or perhaps contributing to stable online magazines, but we're living in a time when every corner of web technology is being explored and exploited, and we are part of the debris that is left behind as the internet world becomes established over the next several decades.
   
   There is nothing like having a community like Hubpages to help our creativity, and hopefully things will get better here, but I think the best way to go where our work will never lose its relevance is on our own personal blog. It will stay up for as long as we want and we can reach out to others as independent publishers, and wherever we go online, we can go with our blog brand and people can look at our stuff. Sort of like having your book on the shelf at the library (not the bookstore).
   
   I don't have a blog yet, but I am considering it as one of the avenues for my writing as I can regulate my own stability and I am not flying around with the entire flock of birds at HP when it decides to fly in the wake of a jetliner and get blown into the ground!
   
   My only question is, what DO I publish here? Is there any point? It's a tough call.
   
   Do I feel exploited? Absolutely not. I have been paid several payouts over the past two years and I have been able to buy books and movies with that money, and more importantly, I have refined my skills somewhat, and met some awesome people here. No regrets. I would say, what is the point of writing poetry for you? Is Hubpages meeting YOUR needs? (Other than money). Would you be better served going somewhere else? And maybe we have been looking at Hubpages like an ultimate luxury vehicle or an ultimate 4X4 wagon that serves all our needs, but in reality is just a Toyota Corolla that gets us to point B. That is okay of course, but for me, that's how I need to quantify my experiences at Hubpages.

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I've published five poetry Hubs, a new one yesterday.  To earn money on HubPages, you have to use SEO for your poetry Hubs just like any other webpage and that can be done.  All of my poetry Hubs, except the new one, are receiving traffic from Google and those pageviews are what makes you money on Hubpages. 
      
      There are 20,400,000 searches on Google every month for 'poetry.'  So, there is an audience.

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   Gypsy Rose Leeposted 10 years ago

   I still love writing poetry and sharing. I've discovered that poetry is also very much accepted on other sites as well. I think it's just a matter of continuing onwards. When I consider writing other things it's just so difficult to decide because there already is so much stuff on the Internet but poetry lets you just be you. Whatever comes I still enjoy writing for HubPages I just no longer have any illusions about grandeur or money. Then again I don't write for money I write for pleasure.

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   Draxposted 10 years ago

   @ahorseback  ..since joining 10 days after launch I have never felt exploited in any way, to me Hubpages provides nice tech and an excellent medium for what I write. The truth is that poetry is not mainstream, book print runs are often in the hundreds and as a category it sells least. Online you have to put in a monstrous amount of work to rise above the electronic noise.
   
   As Guy Clark said "Ain't no money in poetry That's what sets the poet free"  :-)

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   rebekahELLEposted 10 years ago

   I have hardly any of my poetry here, but I have never felt exploited at HP.  It was and is my choice to write and publish here.  I'm awed by the poetry I find daily on HP.   Some of the most generous hubbers are those who publish their poetry here knowing they may not be found by search engines, but they're found and read by others in the creative community, helping and encouraging each other in their off HP endeavors.  I hope poetry will always be welcome here. I wish I had more time to read and write, but I try to read at least one or two poetry hubs a day.  It's great therapy in this mad, crazy, beautiful world.

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