a.a. hardy
Nov 7 · 2 min read

Frankly when I joined Medium I was so excited to find a platform where i could publish my poetry and “maybe” get paid! I have been telling my fellow poets and they too were excited that such a place existed where you could actually be paid for writing “poetry”! But sad to say my hopes have been dashed by the new rules…. it is lucky for me I love putting my words together and will continue to do so but it would be so much better if Medium could/would see fit to get behind this magical, poetical group of original thinkers and help this craft grow rather than wither on the vine!

To be honest everyone loves to be appreciated and when their creativity is say, not as appreciated as the person who writes longer but less original pieces, then the temptation to pack up your pencil case and leave is strong. And let us face it the poet will often present a world view/story/common thought, quite differently by encapsulating and drawing threads of ideas together in a unique and personal manner.

The length of time it takes to read a poem does not reflect the amount of time it takes the poet to tell their story in a minimalist manner. The ruthless behind-the-scenes word pruning that must occur to present a decent selection of words that present a story is not and indeed should not be apparent to the reader; rather the reader should be enjoying the results of the extrapolation of elegant or even thought provoking verse. Hard wrought verse which unfortunately is unappreciated by medium and not reflected fairly in the new changes.

However should anyone know of a paying poetry gig maybe they should place a link here…

Thank you Jenny Justice for writing an honest, compelling review of this new process of monetary reward! Well done.

a.a. hardy

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Thank you for following me. I write poetry (under my maiden name) about the environment, climate change, and fun nonsense rhymes plus essays on life and living.