Look at this, Les: Sherry, Joe, Gwydion, etcetera...all here posting...even Johnny...when it wasn't that long ago when it seemed like everybody had given up. The Mule is alive...even if there continues to be spam from time to time.

Even if we can't get a conversation to stick to the top of the list.

I was never in favor of the stickys. It is good to see a few more familiar faces back in the fold.

But the ads are ridiculous. Whoever is willing to pay for such rubbish is nuts.


Les

Slowly but surely....slowly but surely. I am encouraged.

I no longer have to hit refresh 50 times in order for the page to load, so that's encouraging

I'm so happy you are so refreshed John
I want to role the dog on the front lawn
so the Mule will keep braying
and you will keep saying
whatever will keep us from a gaping yawn.

Decidedly, they pave the way,
They patronize the Chardonnay
And riding on the Santa Fe
Abrasions quote the carpet

Admittedly, they're so uncouth
They packed up all the dry vermouth
And shipped it FedEX to Duluth
While masticating taffy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2013 07:34PM by hpesoj.

The Poet's Guide

Everything counts:

What you put in,
What you leave out

--either for you
Or against you.

:- that I learned from The Dead Lecturer.

From Gasoline, I learned about significant detail.

From my own work, I learned:
those two things
Are not enough.

Everything counts, but nothing really matters.

Keep writing.


Les

Seens this week another crew of old names is arriving including rainysunshine, KQ, and other from the early 2002s. Good to see the place populated with more than just Le, me and the insentient spammers of the last few years.

nice to see you all. i've missed your friendship and poetry and your various pov's. after trying to return to the mule over the years and not finding it (or: finding it gone.... ) i gave up. so thanks to those who found a way to keep this running.

One of my favorite quotes 'bout poetry is Storys are finished,, poems are abondoned.

HEY GANG!!!! I WON FIRST RUNNER UP IN THE BWLYER LYTTON FICTION CONTEST WESTERN DIVISTION THIS YEAR!!!!!!!

My line?? Why I am so happy you asked..

"He got down from his horse, which seemed strange to him, because he had always thought you only got down from geese and ducks"

Hey Mitts, you made it. Yay!

Great line, Terry.

terry, time to be working on your next line. betcha have it halfway worked out, right?

i like the thought of poems being abandoned (rather than unfinished). might have to steal that notion for an essay i am working on. i guess i've been on facebook too much, i was looking for the "like" button to click. it's good to be back in a forum where we must use our words instead of a clicker.

the mule is like that eatery you took me to in downtown Billings that night. It's great, but you have to order off the menu, not just say "Burger and fries"

Every time one of those bastards posts an advertisement on the forum, I want to post twenty poems that day to push them right off the board. I wish everyone in the forum would do that, but obviously, there are off priorities...

Peter, I feel the same way, but the responsibility ultimately rests with the site administrators. I know from experience that they have the tools to eliminate such posts.

What most forum posters do not realize is that the site probably contracts with such spammers, through a third party ad agency, which pays them (the administrators) to post here. (It pays the bills.) The internet is not free, it costs money to use the bandwidth.


Les

I understand, Les. I tend to be otherworldly and utopian about such matters that are not coming out of my own pocket.

It does not upset me that the site advertises, I can't think of one website I frequent which does not. What bothers me is that the advertisements intrude on the forums.

There must be more creative ways of placing the ads on the page.


Les

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2013 01:29AM by les712.

Les and Peter, while the internet isn‘t free, it isn‘t necessarily expensive either. I use iPage now for all my websites and it costs me about $200 a year for all of them put together. Cosmic Poetry is currently broken because the forum-ware I use went belly up, but not counting that initial outlay for the program, the site only costs me $15 a year to run. If you don‘t get fancy, the web is actually pretty cheap.

In short I am with Peter on this one. Lol.

To put it another way. I make my money from my delivery business, not my poetry site. Then again I am a pretty rare breed in North America; money is merely just another form of barter to me. I have gotten almost as much through trades, or just asking, (my fence is recycled from a fencing company‘s throw awayss, my driveway from parking lot pea gravel, et ceteras).

You still in security too?

Hey Terry. Sort of. The fella that runs Mission Folk Fest begged me for two years to come back, so finally I told him how we could work it. So every July for the past three years I head 500 miles south to Vancouver, either with one child, or my wife, cherry pick my crew and run the site at night. I make about a grand for the three nights of work, which leaves me about $700 after expenses to come home with.

Not sure I will do it this year though; my dog Indy nearly died this month. He has Addison‘s disease and will require florinef for the rest of his life. Leaving him for a week may not be doable, because it is very stressful for him.