I first posted my poem, paper boat echoes on hellopoetry.com in June 2016. Since then, the poem has garnered over 7500 views. The readership count for this particular poem has had a steady curve and it is certainly a happy realization for a poet to know that his work is consistently read. The poem is also featured on my poster art blog in a design celebration.
On Posting Poetry Online
Posting and reading poetry online has a dead fish kind of charm in it. It doesn't have the restless splash of a live rendition, permanency, and magic of a magazine or book publication, or a recitation among friends. I do not know who my readers are. Their profile pictures and bio only tell me about how they want to be perceived, rather than who they are.
The comments are usually lavish and generous. There is barely any constructive feedback nowadays. Fellow poets barely venture to suggest a better meter, title, word or anything that could add to a poem. I know poetry posting websites that discourage criticism of any kind. Mention only the good, they say. You scratch my back and I will scratch yours is the general attitude in the online poetry circuit, as experienced.
Bright Screen Addiction
Children and adults dipped down and intent over cell phone screens is a usual scene now. They only had to look up to see the breeze nudge the trees and a retreating monsoon mingle into winter's arrival. In a world shorn of richness, bloated in misery, self-alienation, and widespread bright screen hypnosis, paper boats don't take to turbulent waters as often. Adventure dies in trickles every day, in enclosed spaces and rooms.
paper boat echoes
by Snehith Kumbla
No
land ho!
for you.
Doomed
expeditions,
oblivion,
Only
a wreck's
inevitability,
Yet
soggy,
dogged,
Your
floating
cheer,
Echoes
in childhood
infinite,
At water's
origin, paper's
invention...
(Article by Snehith Kumbla)
