Leave it to you, Chris, to make a jocular poem about writing in a vacuum! Yes, sometimes it does feel that way. And, I have to say, the love appears to be less since last fall’s payment changes on Medium. I get it that the calculations for the Partner Program have changed but because claps aren’t included in the new formulas, people aren’t bothering to clap as much or at all. Regardless of payments, claps were an indicator of readership and appreciation. Readers who had no desire or time to comment would clap. Now, they do neither.

Since last year’s changes, everyone knows that poets and photographers were left out in the cold by the Medium Partner Program. I asked a reader who used to applaud many times for my poems why his applause is so anemic now and he replied that he doesn’t bother because the claps mean nothing. Except, they mean a great deal to the writers.