Modern Confessional blog turns 20

The original site header for my blog. Maybe I should bring that back?!

I cannot believe this blog is 20 years old. I started it in 2003 in a fit of pique when my website kept going down or having glitches while I was trying to promote my debut poetry collection, Better To Travel, which is also marking two decades.

Blogs were still fairly nascent back then (Google had just acquired Blogger in 2003!)  and I thought this site would be a temporary thing until I got my real website sorted out. It didn't take long to realize that blogging was becoming "a thing." I was getting views, so I thought why not make Blogger my "home" on the web? Two decades later, it still is. 

The name "modern confessional" came from a question posed in an interview when the reporter asked what kind of poetry I wrote. Off the top of my head – and in a nod to Sexton, Plath, and Olds – I spouted out modern confessional. What is modern confessional poetry? Your guess is as good as anyone else's. But the name stuck, and I still identify with being an unabashed confessional poet. 

A few weeks ago, I got a monthly report on how many people had visited the blog in June. The number was nearly 7,000. Not a lot, but not a little. I guess some folks are still interested enough in me as a writer or something I've had to share about poetry and fiction to drop in from time to time and read. 

I'm not nearly as prolific, political, or confrontational as I used to be. If you look at the archive in the left sidebar, you can see every post since 2003. I really did go too far sometimes and was unafraid to call out "famous" writers for their shenanigans. I also had plenty to say about George W. Bush, Obama, Hurricane Katrina, "American Idol' recaps, book reviews, author interviews, music I was listening to, and travel diaries about my time abroad. 

As I get ready to publish the new & selected collection, which will put a cap on my last 30 years as a poet, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all those still diligently blogging and reading – all those wonderful people out there in the dark – who continue to check in here from time to time and see what's going on in my world. 

What a strange, fantastic trip it's been.