Top reads at this blog

It’s been four years since I set up this blog. For the last two years I’ve been trying to write in it every week but, very recently, my resolve has lapsed. I admire bloggers who never disappoint their readers, a bit like the most faithful members of a sports team who turn up to play each week, whatever the weather, however busy they are. No matter what else is going on in their lives, they don’t let the others down. I’m afraid I’d be the person phoning in with an excuse at the first sign of a rain cloud.

Nevertheless, I have put a few appearances in over the years, so there is a lot to read at this site. I thought I’d give a plug to some of my posts which seem to attract the most attention (according to WordPress statistics).

A post that seems to attract readers all year round is something I wrote in 2013 ‘Blogs by poets as opposed to poetry blogs.’ I suppose I was quite new to blogging then and was only beginning to discover how much poetry there is on the internet! I guess people arrive at that article because they’re interested in setting up a blog for their poetry or because they’re keen to connect with other poets. It’s great that there is so much creative writing online but it’s incredibly hard to read all of it.

For the last six weeks or so, the post I wrote last year, when I was working for The Reader Organisation reading with people who have dementia, ‘Christmas stories and poems to read aloud’ has been very popular.   There are links to Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’, and O. Henry’s short story ‘The Gift of the Magi’, as well as poems by John Clare, William Wordsworth, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Causley, and UA Fanthorpe.  Take a look.

As you may know, WordPress also tell me some of the search terms which people use to find this site. ‘How to run a writing workshop’ often appears and readers then hit on some of my many posts about this subject, including some of the posts I’ve written about running workshops in schools.

OK, back to the hit parade. ‘Dear Editors – Here are my Poems!’ has been a winner this year. It’s been viewed and shared around the block, according to the data. It’s almost a found poem, comprised in part from some of the things that people who submit to my poetry site, And Other Poems, have actually written. I’ve been told by more than one person that it’s quite funny.

Less of a laugh but also shared and viewed an impressive number of times is my post ‘Poetry and Self-Promotion’. Don’t delay, visit today, you know I want you to, and buy my book while you’re at it!!

Just in case you imagined this site was a hotbed of intellectualism, fear not dear readers. My post ‘Poetry in Rabbits’ is unfailingly a popular pick with the discerning internet peruser. If you haven’t sampled my small collection of bunny-lit, you haven’t lived.

That’s all for now, folks. As always, thank you for reading and apologies for a few missed matches. I’d like to say it won’t happen again but I’d be lying. I’ll do my best, however.