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.

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.