Welp, I Guess I Have to Start Writing About Sex and Productivity and How To Articles Now: Just Kidding, Let’s Try to Save Poetry as Valuable and Valued on Medium
A Longer Article That is Not as Good as a Poem
For the past two months on Medium I have felt fairly well rewarded for my efforts, time, commitment, engagement, and the hours and hours spent writing, reading, sharing, posting, clapping, commenting, and scrolling through my Medium feed.
As a new writer, as a Poet, this place was amazing, It was vibrant. It was the picture of optimism and of well, to me, justice. People were putting their membership dollars where they wanted them to go, via an action, via clapping. That felt nice. That felt cool.
No, I was not raking in 35K a day, or whatever the top bloggers here say they are making. But, my friends, I was excited to think my poetry could pay for my bills. Two bills a month. And also let me have a special coffee now and again. My coffee of choice, when it is a reward? Peppermint mocha. You want to Zelle me some money for this, I will accept it. Because I am feeling pretty sad. About this and about a few other things in life that have just all had to happen at once, making me have to do things and feel things and deal with pain and hurt, and pain and hurt on top of not having money, wow folks, that is some bad combo stuff. So pray for me, please.
Thank you. And now, to my point? Yes:
Three or four days in to the new Medium all I can say is that I feel depressed, angry, sad, and in shock. Something that I needed and loved as a self employed person, as a mom, as a woman, as a writer, as a poet, is now pretty much gone to me as a source of income, or a hope of income. There’s not a lot of jobs out there for poets, not a lot of places that care to pay us for our words. Medium was really special because of what it gave to us as creatives in this way.
And now, it feels like unless I start writing 7 minute articles about sex, sex, sex, or sex, I guess that might mean I will have to learn to do less on Medium. Be less on Medium. Give less to Medium. They want to be like any other space on the internet now — somewhat bland, somewhat run of the mill articles on productivity, social media, maybe culture, I suppose. And that’s great. There are a lot of wonderful writers here. But the claps system let folks support each other based upon the feeling left after we processed what we read. This new system says okay, you scrolled through a 6 minute thing, this counts for something, you read an entire 1 minute poem, this counts for very little.
I suppose now it is time to up my game. To roll with the punches. To mourn and then move on. To be a big girl Poet.
Everyone is saying Patreon, email list, blog, I know, I know, I know guys. But I love (d?) Medium. It felt like a real job. Now it feels like a ghost town for poetry.
What are some ideas folks have to maybe save this thing for us? Besides telling poets to write more poems and post them in longer posts, or telling us to start writing articles now about tech-yawn boring sex-money-work-how-I-made-35k-on-Medium-I-paid-rent-with-Medium-money?
I will not change my writing, my voice, my subject matter, so, of course, don’t worry. I am always true to myself. Hence, poet. Hence, empath. Hence, survivor, etc.
But, we have to do something to inject a spirit of optimism and gratitude into this place again for the Poets. We are working hard, we are real writers, we are getting better at our craft from being here. But just like anything, well, those who love us, and those of us who love ourselves, just won’t accept us spending 8–10 hours a day on Medium for that sweet sweet 2 dollars we get after publishing two or three pretty nice poems a day.
Poetry, yes, even haiku, is not about easy, not about making stuff up, not about doing less work. This stuff upset me when I saw it coming out of the woodwork on FB and in comments. We work hard, we work all day sometimes, we reflect, we read, we give our souls to the words. There are hits and misses but that is with any writing, not every essay or blog post or article about tech or culture is a hit or amazing, not every article takes a day of work, etc. This whole “value” concept is distorted. Value is the feeling that comes after you read, or while you read and then it stays with you, you connect, you learn, you laugh, you cry, and then you reward it with something, somehow, if you can. And now, thanks to the new MPP way, well, you do not get to really control what you reward, you just have to hope for the best that what you really loved gets some form of help and support.
I wonder if a day devoted to just reading poetry might help? But, what I think will help is what Medium probably really wanted — each of us go out, beg people to join Medium, and hope they are loyal to us with their reading time. That feels kind of hollow and forced. Lol.
I am grateful for those who read me, who spend time with me, who spend time with poetry on Medium. I will keep writing, growing, thinking, reflecting, spending time here, and trying to make it whatever it can be now for me. It is community. It is family. It is creativity. But I am disappointed that the feeling of value for poetry seems to have just deflated so harshly. Poets were paying some bills thanks to Medium. Medium could not just let us have this really nice little poetry win.
Now it feels like back to the drawing board and also, a bit of a scramble to see what else might be out there, while still being here, hanging on, spending time on Medium but I am afraid for many poets, we might spend less time here — I mean, it’s basic economics I guess? When we feel there is something possible to justify the time we are spending, and in this case I mean more than the amazing friends we have made, I love you all, I know you love me, I am grateful, but I mean can we tell our husbands, wives, partners, parents that we are doing a bit more than “playing online all day” as in making an income that gets this pressure off of our backs? I just don’t know right now.
I wrote this as a test to see what happens. I don’t feel it is that great or that necessary of a piece. I don’t feel it is as powerful or as meaningful as any of my poems. I feel it is a blog, not writing. But, the experiment is will this thing “reward” in the way that my poems used to when it comes to stats? Time will tell, I suppose.
We are a good bunch, a funny bunch, a kind and caring bunch. I would not trade my time here, my community, my new friends — it is so wonderful to have you all, and let’s stick around, let’s keep going, let’s keep growing, let’s keep doing poetry. But let’s also help each other figure out how to have a sustainable and rewarding life with our passions, with our poetry. I welcome ideas, and hugs, in the comments.
Until next time,
Jenny Justice is a poet mom who longs to bring poetry to life in ways that spark empathy, connection, joy, and feeling. You can follow her on Medium and at Jenny Justice, Writer. You can follow her poetry at Justice Poetic.