This is edscan,
from a recent
Saturday Hate Mail-a-palooza:
The sad part about my "message" not being read
in the Kos is......all of these liars getting to tell their "stories" and the one person trying desparately to tell the truth is being squelched.
This really is un-American !
It's a shame. edscan
bigjac,
not edscan,
below the squiggly:
First,
the way I break up my words
is different than the way
edscan
breaks up his words.
My phrases are shorter,
since I hit enter
anytime I feel as if I might pause,
even a tiny bit,
if I was speaking the words,
at a podium,
with all of you listening
(or reading texts from your phone
and ignoring me).
Here is how I would break up
the edscan quote above:
The sad part about my "message"
not being read in the Kos
is......
all of these liars
getting to tell their "stories"
and the one person trying desperately
to tell the truth
is being squelched.
This really is unAmerican!
It's a shame.
edscan
Do you see the difference?
Do you agree,
that wherever there is a break,
a break in the flow,
I hit the "enter" key?
I want to answer a question,
or a series of questions,
that came up in a comment thread
yesterday.
I wrote my usual kind of comment,
lots of short lines
along the left side of your computer screen.
And another Daily Kos member,
in reply to my comment,
wrote some serious information
about water usage
in California.
I was concerned,
and discouraged,
by the information.
Another commentor,
in reply to both of us,
mentioned poetry,
as if surprised we were both
writing in verse,
but said,
I like the poetry, actually.
You see my style,
here,
so,
I won't bother to copy and paste
my comment from that thread,
but here's the one about water usage
in California:
Here in California
The counties down south
That take the most water
To irrigate pomagranates and almonds
Utilize illegal labor to harvest
The farm workers drink well water
so polluted, that the UN
Has called it a travesty
Meanwhile, clean Delta water flows
in the canals to water the trees
The state wants to open fracking
on the Monterey Shale
BDCP Twin Tunnels to drain 15K CFS
from the Sacramento River to points South.
Killing the Delta to grow export fruit and nuts?
or Killing the Delta to sell the water and frack?
The Delta fish and the farm worker
It seems that nobody has their back.
I didn't even see that
as written in verse,
until the other commentor
said she liked the poetry,
actually.
I looked back,
and,
sure enough,
it does look like verses,
and it makes the information
easier to understand,
especially the last four lines:
Killing the Delta to grow export fruit and nuts?
or Killing the Delta to sell the water and frack?
The Delta fish and the farm workers;
It seems that nobody has their backs.
After that,
I bigjac-ized,
or poetized,
the comment
from the one who liked the poetry,
pointing out
that if you break it up
into logical lines,
and you see it as poetry,
and you like the poetry,
then,
you can do it too.
What followed
was almost a pie fight,
but mainly a discussion
of what is,
and what is not,
poetry.
And someone thinking I might be edscan.
That discussion
inspired me to write this diary.
So,
I give you my thoughts.
A few points:
1. As far as I know,
the definition of
what is poetry,
and what is not poetry,
is not clear.
2. My primary goal
is to make my words
easy to understand.
I use the enter key,
to force the reader to pause,
just a little,
when I think it might help
to separate one phrase
from the next,
one thought
from the next,
one step in logic
from the next.
3. If you feel that what I write
is
not
poetry:
Well,
since my stated goal
is to make my meaning clear,
when writing about
overpopulation,
contraception,
famine,
etc.,
then you are correct.
I'm not writing poetry at all.
I'm just another blogger,
bloggin' away,
writing what's on my mind.
4. If you feel
that what I write
is not only poetry,
but damn fine at that,
I'm not going to argue with you.
Why should I try to tell you
that you know nothing about poetry,
this is just a method
of making myself clear,
and just shut up
about poetry.
I'm not gonna say that,
no way.
Cuz maybe,
just maybe,
long after I'm dead,
there will be a debate about this,
and those on the side of
"bigjac was a poet,"
even if they can never win the debate,
they may at least form
a cult following,
a solid group of fans
of my work.
(There already is,
but it's a pretty small group.)
Why should I argue with my fans?
In conclusion:
If you say what I write
is not poetry,
I will not argue against you.
If you say what I write
is poetry,
and I should be the new editor
of the Daily Kos poetry group
(That already happened;
I'm the new editor
of Indigo Kalliope,
taking over after the death
of ulookarmless.)
I will not argue against you.
One more thing,
(as Columbo always said):
If you feel that my writing style
makes it harder,
not easier,
to understand my words,
I say,
that
simply
cannot
be
true.
The more words are broken up,
the more
absolutely
unavoidable
those
words
are.
Thanks for reading.