[Max Goodman]

Gail brought me here and my use (of Eratosphere--not Facebook) is similar to hers. More and more frequently I look at workshopped poems and don't feel I have anything helpful to say.

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Brian Allgar

Hah! It's a good thing you said "almost", Michael. I'm four years older then Edmund, and Bazza is even older than me. (I won't speculate on what that means for our respective funniness ....)

Bob has pointed out to me that this is an entirely false claim. I did a hasty scan on the Internet, and found a date of birth in 1947 for Edmund Conti. I failed to spot that it was the wrong Edmund Conti, and that this one had been arrested on criminal charges. Looking further, I see that the real Ed was born in 1935. My apologies to Ed. I hang my head in juvenile shame.

[Roger Slater]

My own internet search says that Ed was born in 1929, which I think may be the correct birth year if I'm correctly recalling things that Ed has posted in the past.

[Jayne Osborn]

I know I've mentioned this before, but while we're on the subject of age I'll relate it again...

I was talking with Ed Conti, Bob McKenty (of similar age to Ed) and the lovely Melissa Balmain at WC in 2012. Bob brought Casey at the Bat into the conversation, which, as a Brit, I had only very recently heard of on the Sphere, and I asked Bob enthusiastically, "Oh, did you write that?"

Much hilarity followed, and Bob replied, "Jayne, I'm old... but not that old."
(For the benefit of other Brits, the poem [not well-known on this side of The Pond] was written in 1888 )

Jayne

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

My own internet search says that Ed was born in 1929, which I think may be the correct birth year if I'm correctly recalling things that Ed has posted in the past.

You mean I've got the wrong Ed again? Oh, damn! Will the real Ed Conti please hold up as many fingers and toes, borrowing some from friends and family as necessary, to indicate his age? Or just tell us "This information is classified."

[Edmund Conti]

If you are going to Google me, Google Edmund Conti. Or use my porn name, Johnny Jetstream. (It should be Johnny Jastram, Jastram St. being the street where I was born, Johnny my first pet). Anyway I was born Jan 13, 1929 in Providence, RI which makes me a few months older than X.J. Kennedy, whose name I drop because he wrote me a great blurb for my book from Kelsay which I fear may never get published.

Oh, and I don't live in Summit, NJ. Now in Raleigh, NC.

[Michael Cantor]

Oh, I remember Johnny Jetstream. You were terrific in What's Up in Hollywood. But then the talkies came in, and your career seems have ended. Is that when you switched to poetry? Did we ever work together?

Attila Davidson

[Edmund Conti]

My Rhode Island accent did me in. Are you a top or a bottom?

[John Isbell]

Hmm. There could be an academic paper here. "The Porn-Poetry Nexus: Lessons in the Applied Sciences."

Cheers,
John

[Mark McDonnell]

I noticed recently that I've been here for two years now (joined May 5th 2016 to be precise), so this thread seems a good opportunity to say what I've wanted to say for a while.

This place has genuinely changed my life. I don't know anyone in my actual life who writes poetry, or even reads it. Two years ago nobody, not even my wife or close friends, knew that I had dozens of poems in a notebook with no idea what to do with them. I'm sure many people here are the same. When I joined and was told that I can, and should, actually write, and by people who seemed so knowledgeable and encouraging it was thrilling beyond words. I still feel like this. So thank you Mary, Nemo, David C, Cally (and Dave, her googleable husband), Matt and everybody else here. And Jayne for letting me in.

I've learned a lot in two years. I've learned that poets are real people, and nice people. I've learned that I'm much more argumentative and stubborn online than in real life (this is the only online thing I do apart from Facebook). I've learned to critique poems and that it's a joy I didn't know I was missing. I post here a lot, maybe too much, because it's a privilege to have a space where all that matters is poetry. That's still wonderful and unbelievable to me. I'm waiting for the novelty to wear off, but it hasn't yet.

I've still never read any of my poems aloud to people. I've hardly ever read them aloud full-stop. I feel like I want to now. I want to be a poet who teaches in a secondary school rather than a secondary school teacher who writes poetry. Fuck it, I want to be a poet. At 46 I feel like a new thing has started for me, which is weird and unexpected. And all this is thanks to the sphere.

I'm glad I got that off my chest.