Monday, September 7, 2015

More than meets the eyes for a Google surprise




I checked myself out in Google today. Never you mind why. It wasn't vanity. OK, I needed to know if a poem I wanted to submit would show up on a Google search--I had posted it on a message board for an on-line class. (It did not, by the way, so I'll send it out this afternoon.)

My first surprise:  my name generated more than 77,000 hits! Granted, only 180 or so were for my name, and not for some scattered combination of my name's three elements or for repetitions of the 180, but still pages and pages.

My second surprise:  poetry hits dominated. The psychology hits are fading off the screen. This is fine, as I have been retired from practice for nearly three years, and gave up my business phone number and address at that time; I haven't taught or supervised in a doctoral program for ten years, so no more listings linking me to staff in those settings.

My third surprise, the big one:  I have been reprinted and quoted and reviewed, and I never ever knew. I'll put some links right here:
http://exceptindreams.livejournal.com/344642.html

http://topfamousquotes.com/karen-greenbaum-maya-quotes/

http://www.booksasfriends.ca/booksasfriends.ca/Interviews/Entries/2013/3/5_Award_winning_poet_and_photographer,_Karen_Greenbaum_Maya(www.cloudslikemountains.com)_tagged_me_as_part_of_the_Next_Big_Thing_a_series_of_self_interviews_to_learn_of_my_recent_book..html

http://www.thereviewreview.net/reviews/online-journal-celebrates-25th-anniversary-writing-s

"Conductor" was a poem I could not get accepted for publication. I finally sent it to a blog about trains. Apparently it has been passed on from there without getting my permission, though to be fair, they always give me credit. Same thing for "Passing Through", a poem I wrote because I needed to write it. Another reference calls me "award-winning", something I never thought to apply to myself, though it is, technically, true. It's a big world out there.