Squeezing Pennies Out Of Poems Is Like Drawing Blood From A Stone
“How Candide chanced upon his old philosophy tutor, Dr Pangloss, and what came of it.” — Voltaire (Candide)
The old joke about poets still holds true: we don’t make money. Show me a poet who flies business class and I will show you a liar. After my first full week of being on the Medium Partner Program, despite prolific output
(16 poems, 2 prose pieces), I have made a grand total of 19 cents. That’s not a typo. Nineteen spectacular cents. Here is my breakdown below:
Because nine cents plus five cents plus three cents plus two cents equals NINETEEN CENTS. (I’m one of those rare poets who is also good at math, like Edgar Allen Poe). Now, you might think, well that’s because your poems suck and nobody wants to read them. The opposite is true. Most of my poems are with Medium publications and getting visited, “viewed” (I’m beginning to hate that word), read, clapped at, followed, stalked. And I expect nothing less, as I’ve been organically sharpening my craft for over a couple of decades now. So incompetence is not the reason for this great Good Friday joke of 19 cents. (I’ll bet you Jesus had more in his pocket when…
