Why Am I Online

     
                                             
                                                    
is a question I have asked and answered often.           
The Internet is my house of learning.  That is   
my common response.  And while I'll never even   
scratch the surface of what I would learn, no  
further response is needed.  However, there are
deeper reasons.                                 
                                                    
I used to be out and about easily, but that ended      
in mid-January of 2003.  It doesn't matter that   
by current standards I am still a young man.  So    
I am a hermit, but not a true hermit.  It isn't in
me.  Yet, even if I made no contacts with other   
humans, being online would suffice because I think   
it would be enough to alleviate my loneliness.         
                                                      
An early post of what was my last AOL journal is   
a note about Frederick Seidel.  Due to a recent   
comment by Michael Robbins beneath a Harriet post,   
I have been learning more about this American   
poet.  If you do a Frederick Seidel 2009 search
via Google and choose the Google books result,   
you can potentially read many of his poems.  I    
read, among others, "The War of the Worlds" and  
found I liked it mainly because of his straight-
on yet imaginative way of engaging a difficult  
topic.  Three reviews worth reading are Sarah  
Crown's "Chronicle of excess", Adam Kirsch's    
"The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", and this   
one by Wyatt Mason in which he writes          
". . .the cultural definition of what a poem is: 
a thing that wakes us, shakes us, moves us,   
and pays equal attention to the details of    
living and the art of poetry."
                                                     
Therefore, God willing, I intend to be an online
human in spite of the varying technical challenges.             
                                                    
                                                   
                                                     
                                                    
                                                       
                                                       
rh00360