Who reads poetry? You do.

Thanks for making this newsletter a "bestseller"!

Dear friends, it’s come to my attention that Dispatches from the Basement is a “Substack bestseller.” Imagine that!

When a friend suggested I start this newsletter a year and a half ago, I laughed the idea off, but he persisted. I couldn’t fathom that anyone would be interested in receiving one of my poems once a week, let alone pay for a subscription.  

But my friend was right. People showed interest in droves when I announced that I was starting a newsletter, and they continue to show up and subscribe.

Most poets are lucky to have a few readers, but it’s incredibly rare to have several thousand. Hundreds of you show your support through paid subscriptions. Thank you all. I am blessed and I am lucky.

Growth has been steady!

I am grateful to each one of you who reads these dispatches.

---

Most of you know I was “cancelled” in January of 2018. Life as I knew it was over. The literary world flushed me out, blacklisted me, and the mob of hellhounds who relentlessly pursued the destruction of my life continued well into 2019.

The hellhounds still pop up from time to time, but I have managed to rebuild my life and my platform despite them and their antics.

Thanks to you, my readers, I realized I could function as a working poet without the world of poets attached like barnacles to the slimy pylons of academia.

I am that rare beast, the independent artist, able to pay bills and buy coffee with my work.

You make this rare life in poetry possible.

---

I’m reminded of a quote by Paul Celan, “The poem is lonely. It is lonely and en route.”

Here at Dispatches from the Basement, the poem is not so lonely, and it is always en route — straight to your inbox.

Thank you for being here and supporting my work.

Much more to come!

Joseph