Introduction
This is the
second book of poetry I've published first on the web,
then on lulu. The first,
Who Shall Sing, When Man is
Gone, was one of the
first books of web poetry to be published back in the mid-90's when the
web was young.
The poetry in this book is is freely available on the web at:
and it may well be that you are reading these words there.
If so, be aware that it is also available as a printed, bound book
that can be purchased online at my personal lulu storefront:
If you like this poetry, remember that buying the book (even an
extremely inexpensive online version of it, also from lulu) helps to
support the poet.
I'm offering the poetry in online form for two reasons:
First, it in principle lets just about anybody in the known
cyber-universe browse the poetry as often as they wish, absolutely free,
or print it out to be able to read it when they aren't near a browser,
or read it out loud. At the same time it preserves my right to make a
profit from my own work (if anybody does) and prevents me from ever
being in the silly position of having to purchase a book republication
of my own work from which I've derived no gain. This may sound silly
and impossible, but without careful licensing it is neither.
Second, I am one of a growing number of artists (software, prose,
poetry, musical, visual) who rebel against the stranglehold of the
publication and entertainment industry on individual artists. At a time
we should be experiencing a cultural renaissance of truly universal
proportions as the web extends a "voice" to every human on the planet
little by little, we see that industry, with its immense profitability
threatened, turn more and more to distortions of the laws intended to
protect the artists to simply extend their reign of extortion.
There are some lovely websites that detail just how easy it is for a
musical group (for example) to cut a deal for a CD, sell it successfully (hundreds of thousands of copies with millions of dollars
in gross revenues) and actually lose money by the time the
recording industry is through with them. It is perhaps not as bad in
the paper publication industry, but we live in a world where the author,
artists, or musician who makes as much as 10% of the net revenue
generated from the resale of their own work is exceptionally
fortunate.
Lulu is the coming world of micropublishing. When you buy a book from
Lulu, I actually make 80% of the marginal profit leftover from the
sale. In a year, two years, or ten years, Lulu published books (and
books published “on the spot” by a myriad of competitors) will be
commonplace, and will generate a new Renaissance of music, poetry,
prose, and visual arts.
Subsections