Blogwurst?

As you may, or may not, recall, I changed the look of this blog not too long ago (see my post from last month, A New Look for Blog Time Passing).  And I have this blog feeding into my Facebook profile courtesy of Networked Blogs (and you may have noticed the Networked Blogs widget over on the right, which is a Facebook-app-oriented way to subscribe to this blog, so please, feel free).  And Networked Blogs uses a thumbnail image of your blog on its Facebook updates, which is pretty cool.  

Only, as it turns out, this app (short for application, in case you didn't know, and welcome to the social media monkey house, aka planet of the apps) doesn't update the thumbnail when you change the look of your blog, which makes for some instant nostalgia.  I found three versions of the thumbnail, in fact, in varying sizes, from smallest: 

to slightly less small:

to slightly less small than the slightly less small one:

I have to admit I'm all thumbs when it comes to thumbnails, so back when I posted A New Look for Blog Time Passing, which is why I used a much larger screenshot in that post:

Now, looking back fondly on those halcyon old days here at Blog Time Passing (is it my imagination or are the cycles of nostalgia getting shorter all the time?), reminds me of how tube-like that classic blog template was.  And don't get me wrong, I have no desire to return to that narrow, confined format, I much prefer the expansive template I am now using.  It's just that it got me thinking about April being National Poetry Month, in addition to being Autism Awareness Month (see my previous post, A Little Help From My Friends, and the Autism Fundraiser link over on the right, and please consider donating).

As you may, or may not, know, I also do a poetry blog over on MySpace.  It's called Lance Strate's BlogVersed, and after starting it up, I put up a post here on Lance Strate's Blog Time Passing explaining my new two-timing blogging ways: BlogVersed.  And for a long time, I was determined to keep these two blogs separate, but eventually I decided to post some of my poetry here as well, on occasion.  And National Poetry Month certainly seems like as good an occasion as any.

Another reason I was reluctant to post poems here is that some of my poetry involves special formatting, which the MySpace blogging setup allows for and the old Blogger set-up did not.  While MySpace's blogging tools are overall not as sophisticated as Blogger's, MySpace allowed for more freedom in formatting, and didn't involve the narrow template of the classic Blogger set-up.  I don't know if this means I'll be much more forthcoming with the poetry now here on Blog Time Passing, but it certainly opens up more possibilities.

But that's not my point in this post.  Rather, I was thinking back to the first poem I posted over on MySpace, which was the first of a series I put up that played off of the name of my poetry blog, BlogVersed.  That first poem has the title, "Blogversed," but was based on how much that sounded like some sort of sausage, that is, like "blogwurst" (hence the title of this post).  And the poem plays with the comparison between sausage and blogging.  Well, why I am I just telling you about it, when I can show you what I mean:

Blogversed

Bratwurst, knockwurst, bockwurst, weisswurst, bierwurst, wienerwurst, blutwurst
Blogwurst?

There's meat here, it's true,
But we use every part of the animal.

Nothing gets cut out, nothing goes to waste.
It's all tenderized, chopped, minced, ground,
Spiced, diced, mashed, pickled, fermented,
Smoked, boiled, broiled, grilled, fried,

But that's just the content.

It's the medium that massages the meat,
The tube that turns us on as we turn it on,
It's all squeezed, squeezed, squeezed.
Rolled, and scrolled.  Rolled, and scrolled.
It's the tube that turns to cause the form.

The tube is the transmission.
The tube tells the tale.
The tube is the transition.
The tube trips the traveler.
The tube is the transformation.

The tube is the vacuum, fall up, eons follow
Big bang!  The tube is the torpedo!
Wherever we go, we remain inner tube.

We are tubes within tubes within tubes,
Worming our way into the morning light,
Only to feed the worms in the darkness of night.

The tube tolls for thee.
The tube you'll arbite, bellowing.
The tube sets the tone, and pipes the tune.
The tube plumbs the depths, a tunnel keeping time.

The tube takes a twist,
Meat, and twist, meat, and twist again.
The twist gives definition,
Beginnings and endings,
The twist marks life and death,
The twist and the 'tween,
Twist and shout,
Twist, Ollie,
Ollie, oxen free.

The twist brings connection,
The twist that ties, and binds, and chains,
Links begat links begat links begat links,
Post that meat, then link, link, link,
Link a lot, Lance, links for the memories,
Links are so hyper, links are so hot—hook up!

Links for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,
We are what we eat:  tubes that go linking!
Send a salami to your boy in the army!
Salami, Salami, Salami, Bologna!

My words are twisted by the blog into wordwursts,
Sausaged into tubes and squeezed into posts,
Sausages and postages,
Sending themselves,
Sending me.

I saw sages go sailing through the night, and the day,
Switching packets, any port in the electrical storm,
May God watch over them, for they're all on their own,
I know not what they do.

Bangers!  Keep 'em flying, gang, bombs away!
Kielbasa!  Sweet, sweet, sword in hand!
Chorizo!  Sizzling, stiff, and so spicy!
Mortadella!  Dig we must, and deeply, here we go!

Braunschweiger, mustamakkara, sosis, sucuk.
Frankfurter, hot dog, Slim Jim.
Poetry packed into a tube,
The meatium is the mess, aged.  They are
Extensions of the intestines,
Don't ask how they are made.
Just eat them.
Just read them.
Just greet them.
Blogwurst!

Lance Strate

So, yeah, it's got some media ecology in the mix, and as blogversing goes, it's decidedly light.  But the funny thing is, it was the classic Blogger template that I was working with that got me thinking about blogs as tubes, and therefore sausages, along with the pun on blogversed as blogwurst.  Although the analogy between sausage links and a sequence of blog posts holds no matter what, you might call it ironic that I was posting this poem on a MySpace blog that was not itself tubelike in its format.   Ah, well, tubey or not tubey, that's the question, ain't it?

So anyway, have a happy National Poetry Month, and guten appetit!