I checked my blog's numbers after my last post. My readership seemed to be exploding, but considering the volume was all from Singapore, I knew it was just bots. Lately Hong Kong has gotten in on the action.
I checked some forums and I know I'm not the only one with this issue. The best Google has done is block the links these bots usually leave behind to trick you into clicking off to some internet alley where they club you over the head with cookies and steal your information.
I haven't posted anything new in almost two months and yet the hits my blog gets weekly are up 500% from when I posted nearly every day for two years. Over 5000 readers last month and not a single poem has received extra views; not a single comment posted.
See, I got on these new Twitter clones and started posting my blog links like crazy. Well, apparently whatever these bots ping my blog for, Threads, BlueSky, and even X are facilitating it.
The massive influx of trash traffic with no end in site decided for me that I needed a break.
But here I am again, thinking about coming back. Thinking about words again and whether putting them together in weird or wonderful ways is even worth it.
What is poetry now? What does it mean in context with AI chat bots, and pop-star chapbooks filled with poems about break-ups through text and pseudo-philosophical questions that pop like bubblegum when tested?
I don't have answers. Language evolves over time. Artforms evolve over time. I can pursue my own linguistic interests in the sweep of this possibly polluted current without mimicking that which I find disdainful. And I guess, as one who simply feels compelled to throw these bottles out into the ocean from my island from time to time, that's enough for me.
Still, it would be great if a few other castaways' bottles washed up on my beach from time to time. I'm here to write, but I'm also here to connect. That's never really seemed to work though.
Getting over yet another bout with COVID now, but I have meds and antivirals and recovery will likely be swift. After that, I'll come back and we'll see what happens.
I hope all of you humans not in the thrall of nefarious data miners are well. And as always, I encourage you to be good to each other.
~Bacchus
