Muse-ings

This is my 99th post! I have been running this blog since July 2012: three years. I first kicked off with a review of my own story As Pleases My General, followed by a boost for my pal Ozzie's fabulous Lusting While Dusting.

I'm going to celebrate with poetry! 

When I started this blog I was riddled with insecurity and lack of confidence. I used to come online, laughing and flirting and pretending to be totally The Thing. The truth was, if I had had a poem dedicated to me back then, I would have run in terror. I wouldn't have understood that I was good enough for such warm appreciation.

It was a long journey for me to gain confidence, to get a better idea of how strong a person I am. If you are someone who thinks you aren't clever or pretty or funny enough, or otherwise an attractive person, this blogpost is for you. I thought that too when I started writing, and now I have got poetry dedicated to me online. If you had told me that would happen when I started with blog review #1, I would have jumped for joy. 


'Smatteroffact (*smugness*) recently two poems were written for me! This one is by my lovely friend HP and is a little spoof on Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese #43. That actually is one of my favourite poems, so I am doubly delighted that HP has parodied it for myself. (I probably should explain that my nickname on the writers' board is Duchess, because I use a picture of Duchess the cat from Aristocats as my avatar.)

Duchess:
How do we love thee?
Let me count the ways:

We love thee for thy trenchant humour
That passes all understanding.
We love thee for thy wordage; It passes over my head
At very high speed.
(Feminism?: Wassat ?)
(Deconstruction?: You WHAT?)

We love thee for thy cheeky prose:
And strange translations of foreign poets
read in a breathy English-sounding voice.

Isn't that lovely! (:heart:)


The other poem is by Curl4ever, who has started reviewing on this blog and whose stories on Brawna I reviewed recently. His poem is about women generally and how we have many sides to us. I love how he depicts a tigress strength in Internet Feminist.

My troll-smacking outfit
 - from Pinterest

I found it hard to understand that I'm a strong sexy internet feminist. Women are not usually encouraged to be such powerful beasts so I felt embarrassed about it and pretended for a long time to be a li'l pussy cat <snerk>. Plus, people were often jealous of me and would try to bully me and make me feel bad about myself and I'm afraid I often believed them. Slowly I came to realise that if people were going to be mean to me, there must be something good about me that they were trying to get at. I built my inner strength and confidence; even when I was going through tough times I was able to remember how many people admire my work. Being online was kinda useful in this regard, as online people write down what they think of you and you can go back and read it again when you are feeling low. I used to smack the noses of trolls online, and then I went and did the same thing to the bullies in real life (with the support of my union, united we stand, kids - don't try this sort of thing on your own at home, LOL).

I love writing this blog. Here's to another 99 posts! I do enjoy being an Internet Feminist; especially now that I hang out with friends who appreciate what I'm doing and cheer me on. I saw one of the real life bullies the other day at a work event. He looked very miserable and snuck off after lunch with his tail between his legs. I stayed on all weekend, having a delicious single malt whisky with one of my pals and going to fun workshops and chatting with my colleagues about our work.