Got Feedcrack?

I knew when I started thinking of experiences as "posts" that it was time [to start blogging].

--My Oldest Sister

So Luisa's post from yesterday pushed me over the top. I've been thinking for the past few weeks, if a bit longer, about why I blog. After I finished posting everyday in April for National Poetry Month, I fizzled into blogger burn-out and my fire's only smoldering anymore. I've stopped thinking of reasons to post---scratch that; I think of things that might make cool posts but never give them life; even now, I'm wondering why I'm writing this because I just feel like I'm whining---and I sometimes find it more a chore to keep house here than anything, especially when I get so few comments that I feel like I'm talking to myself.

And I can do that without Blogger looking over my shoulder.

I do feel less of a need for feedcrack (Luisa's word for "comments, input, interactive readership") than I once did, but I still feel like I'm yearning for the validation of the inhabitants of Planet Blog.

How pathetic is that? (Go ahead. Do it. Extend the pointer finger and thumb on your right hand, put the 'L' to your forehead, and point in my direction. That's it.)

The two bright spots in my blogging commitment have been my decision to keep on with my Mormon Poetry Project, through which I've found some great poets and poems that inspire me in my second area of light---posting poems in progress, which Theric is almost always kind enough to comment on. (And both of these are likely to play a defining role in the continuing development of my blogging identity.)

I do follow a short list of blogs in my reader (most of which you'll find in the aggregator to your left), to which I add one or two every once in a while. I'm more a quality over quantity guy, so to make it onto my list means something, though I'm not quite sure what that might be---probably that I've come to consider you a friend or you're part of my family or in line with my engagement with poetry and Mormon Letters.

And this network, I think, is one other reason I'm still here (whether for good or for ill, you be the judge). I have no blogcrushes, save, perhaps, with A Motley Vision, which is really the center of my blogging community and one reason I took on some Blogger property myself.

And so, in response to Luisa I say, No, you're not alone in your constant pursuit of community (and maybe a bit of validation). And though I've just been introduced to your blog, I'm responding to you here and adding you to my reader because I see in you someone a bit like me, except that I'm not female and really know very little about you---but your struggles seem to be my struggles.

And for now, that's good enough for me. (Not to mention that William at AMV gave you the nod. And I, almost, trust him implicitly.)