Avert Your Eyes! Worst Post of the Year #2

Color me stumped. I have no idea why this one was ignored by you, the readers. Sure, it might not be to everyone’s taste. But the second lowest post of the entire YEAR? Huh? Why? There’s some good content in this post! And there it sits, unloved, unwanted. The Internet has passed it by, again and again and again.

I just don’t get it.

Unlike the mealymouthed case against the case for CodeX, or the agonizingly misguided pen reviews, this one is – dare I say it! – not all that different from most of my other posts!

Is it because of the screaming headline? Maybe I pushed too far? Okay, fine, perhaps substandard haiku in America does not exactly rise to the level of a “national nightmare.” The point is arguable! Reasonable people may differ!

Or was it the tone and the timing? Maybe because on December 20, the height of the holiday season, people did not want to read a screed against “Captain Good-at-Counting” and “Suzie Number-Game.” What can I say? I thought they might!

And they did not. You, reader, did not care one bit.

You not-cared enough to make this the second least popular post on the site. Of the entire year!

Except…now that I check the stats, I see one thing. One ray of hope. Sure, the post barely garnered any traffic. But it did get a like. Exactly one like. From reader Jeff S., who’s been there from the blog’s earliest days, supporting and commenting. I haven’t done a check on this, but I have a feeling there are many posts in the archive with one like from Jeff S. Maybe that’s why I kept going! Jeff S. liked it – which made me think there must be others who would eventually turn up too. He was the first guest at the party, smiling and waiting as I unfolded the card table and strung up the decorations and set out the bowls of chips. Thank you, Jeff S.! I hope you’re still having fun now that the place has gotten a little more crowded!

So here’s the post, in all its dismal ineptitude. Avert your eyes, people!

The Jacke Wilson Blogiversary Countdown 

Least-Popular Post #2

National Nightmare Alert: Why Haiku Fails in America

Why, why, why did this fail? I’m happy to hear your theories in the comments, readers. Do you hate haiku? Hate haters of haiku? But I love haiku! I want it to be better! Am I alone in thinking there’s a problem? Am I alone in caring?

Was it the last line – “Let’s let go”? Too subtle? Too demanding? It’s practically my philosophy of life!

Oh, the misery of a post about haiku that has no audience. If a blog post fails in the forest…and there are no observers…



17 responses to “Avert Your Eyes! Worst Post of the Year #2”

  1. I have done an amazing and terrible thing: I liked both this post and the original post. There is not a single idea flitting about in the empty attic of my brain that can fathom why this post is number two on your least popular list. Haiku is wonderful; but some people care more for form than substance. Such is the way with word counters and strict grammarians alike.

    In fact, the whole mess can be expressed in a haiku:

    Haiku: short on words
    Succinct thoughts float on the wind
    I never end them right.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank goodness for amazing and terrible things! (And thank you for the comment!)

      Like

  2. I love haiku. I’m
    even American. Such
    a boggle monster.

    Like

    1. Last line floored me. Thanks for the comment!

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Well, I wasn’t around for this when it was originally posted. I like it! And I agree with your point… sitting around counting syllables and arguing about it doesn’t really do much to enhance the conversation around haiku. Moreover, maybe haiku, in all its beautiful simplicity, doesn’t really lend itself to good conversation. The deep spiritual YES response to a perfect haiku is enough of an answer.

    Like

  4. I think you shocked everyone into silence… 😀

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    1. For some reason this made me laugh out loud. How low can I get?

      Like

  5. The thing that bothers me most about social media is the increasing need for attention and likes. For a while, I too became dependant on, if not obsessed with the graph showing me people had at least taken a peak at my latest post. The same thing was happening with status updates on Facebook. It was an absolute mind trip and my stress levels were ridiculous. Give it a couple more years and this ‘addiction’ will be recognised, given a fancy name and we’ll be sitting alongside other addicts in rehab centres begging for help. But don’t worry, I can put this in perspective for you, Jackie, and make you feel a whole lot better. When I read your post above, it had already received 27 likes. Never, in the near two years I’ve been blogging, have I ever come close to 27 likes on a post. In fact, I’ve never come close to 20. In two years, I have less than 200 followers, while another blog I follow recently celebrated one year and over 5,000 followers, and for the life of me I can’t understand why. So you see, from my perspective, you’re not doing too bad. What helped me in the end was a forceful reminder that I didn’t start my blog for personal validation or fame. Keep blogging, but most of all, do it for your own pleasure and keep the stats and likes in perspective. Otherwise, look out for me – I’ll be the one wearing pink at the rehab door! 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Thank you for this wise and graceful comment. It’s true that the size of things is all relative. For a while I was tracking this with a set of posts called “the dignity of small audiences” – the one I remember is that William Carlos Williams put out a collection of poems that sold eight copies in its first year. Eight. And now he’s taught in universities all over the country.

      Keep blogging – I think these things snowball. Audience attracts audience, you just need a little traction. And try new things. Or don’t – if you’re happy doing what you’re doing, people will find you. The 200 might be your ideal audience. 200 people checking in frequently is a lot of people! William Carlos Williams would have thought so!

      I’ll have some more thoughts on success when I finally make it to my #1 post of the year. But for now, let me just say that the blog is keeping me sane, not the reverse! All best, Jacke

      Like

  6. Perhaps you might expand the post with some beautiful haiku examples contrasted against a CW wall of fail. Maybe solicit contributions to the haiku wall. We’d have a head photograph, the haiku and then a brief personality assessment assassination of the patient. We could open the Haiku clinic somewhere near a beach.

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    1. Oh, wow. I love this idea! And we’d bring in Dr. Robert Hass once a year to lecture to the clinicians…

      Liked by 1 person

  7. hell! I could written this post! Are you sure I didn’t write this already? I have posts like that too, one that is SO dear to me and everyone studiously ignores it. Why? It was fun! Educational! Satirical! Interactive! Here – you can ignore it too now…

    about the state of affairs

    Oh – I hate haiku….
    Thanks for liking my latest post The Typewriter Tape. I am following you now.

    Like

    1. I’m pretty sure I didn’t read it. Maybe you wrote it and I ignored it? Would be fitting…

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  8. Oh dear, I think you underestimated the sacred status of haiku in the minds of many. This ranges from the practitioners of truly teeth-gnashingly banal to the practitioners of the pretty-well-perfect. It is just not politically-correct to say nasty things about haiku. So the first group would have been offended and the second group would have loftily ignored you.

    Like

    1. You’re probably right, but this made me laugh. The Haiku Mafia! Don’t mess with the Haiku!

      Liked by 1 person

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