What People Have Been Saying About the Blender

From: Stephanie
Date: 3 August 1997

I LOVE your site!  I have it bookmarked and come to it often.
It is so comforting to read other love stories/heartbreaks.
Thank you soo much for creating this site and sharing it with
us.  Kirk, your poetry is amazing itself.  Thank you for sharing
that too.  I have recently found out that love can be found on
the internet, and also that you can have your heartbroken the 
same way.  I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one who
feels that way.  Thanks again!  By far my favorite site! 

P.S. I love the five lovebites!  Especially sacrament!  It really
struck a cord.  :)

From: mmarsh5434@aol.com
Date: 4 August 1997
"August" is a wonderful poem.  Where oh where can I
get more of the same?  I would love to have more poems
or other literature of the same spectacular quality.  The
vivid imagery is great--don't I sound a little upity?  I'm not
trying to, but it is rare that I find a writer whose prose 
touches so close to home.  I imagined myself in the poem.
Anyway, it is great and I've shared it with many other people.  
Thank you for sharing your work!!
Mals

From: Brynn Freshley       brynnf@asu.edu
Date: 4 August 1997
I read the neatest poem, I had even read it elsewhere once
before, but I am now trying to get the poem in its entirity
to keep.  It goes on to talk about how (paraphrasing of 
course) someone entered my life, tread softly on my heart...
leaving footprints and now my life will never be the same.

If you have seen this anywhere, I'd appreciate it if you 
could send it to my e-mail address written above.
Thank you!

From: mmarsh5434@aol.com
Date: 4 August 1997

Kirk:
ok, i read "Cafe at Night".  i love it, and now i'm curious
about where you get your inspiration(s) from?????
you seem to be a deep individual--it's almost like you have
an "old soul".  what's up with that?  whatever it is that gives
you inspiration, continue looking to it because your stories 
have inspired me, and of course i've been sending them
to various people, who love them as well!!!
thanks again for sharing your gift...
mals

From: pablo@owl.csusm.edu
Date: 6 August 1997

that journal part is the best i feel.
I'm not too incredably amped by the prose.
it's just not my thing, but people's stories and
advice. Advice and about relationships and sex (but
not in that order sometimes hehe).

keep on rocking, you've got a place in my heart,
i mean bookmark :)

From: abby
Date: 9 August 1997

poems are so CoOl!!!...
every hopeless romantic will really fall for it.

From: nef@sanbernardo.com.ar
Date: 9 August 1997
quisiera saber si tienen cuentos de amor en espaņol

                       muchas gracias

           Nora de Argentina

From: Purrsuasiv
Date: 10 August 1997
What a delightful romp !!  I will be be back!!

From: mmarsh5434@ aol.com
Date: 14 August 1997

I must thank each and every one of you for sharing your
wonderful gifts with me (and others...)  I have always 
enjoyed poetry throughout my twenty-something years of life...  
but now i feel a connection to several of the writers that 
have submitted their work to the Blender.  A big thank
you goes out to j on thinking of this...  this is almost 
as if you have been in my head because this reminds me so 
much of the man that is the love of my life (and I finally 
woke up to this after a four year friendship, not once looking 
or thinking romantically about him...), and carlos rubenstein--
I am digging "At Work After...." again, you must be in my head..
Keep it coming...
MKM

From: Alyssa: AaJay@webtv.net
Date: 16 August 1997

Everything you said about non-symetrical love sounds just 
like it came right out of my mouth. It is so true for me. 
I always love and need people  cannot have for some reasons 
and so I always end up lonely and frustrated, but I keep on 
doing the same thing. There are too many questions in the world 
about the things we do, and the frustrating thing is that we will 
never know the answers to these questions. 

From: Juli - jaysltd@execpc.com
Date: 17 August 1997

I really like and agree with your view of "couples."  I have
been the type of person all my life to completely lose
myself whenever entering a relationship.  I suppose that is
the way I was raised, and I really didn't know any better.

A friend of mine told me once, "You know I liked being around
you so much better when you were you and not him."  It hit
me hard and made me do a lot of thinking.  I went through a
phase where I then became too independent and wouldn't let
anyone get close enough for me to lose myself.  

Fortunately, I found someone a few years ago who changed my
entire life.  We just got married, as a matter of fact.  I
never thought I would find a relationship where I could do
my own thing and still be part of a "couple."  But I found
it, and have to say, now I appreciate what the angels said.  
I don't think it happens very often, but it's true.

I think that the difficulty with couples is that everyone is
looking for what they believe they lack when they search to
find a mate.  Then they blend in all their insecurities and
end up with a relationship that is almost neurotic.  They 
are afraid to let the other person out of their "couple" 
personality for fear they might lose them.  

The reality is that we all contain all the ingredients to be
complete - we just have to find them in ourselves, and not
in another person.  The completing of the soul comes when 
you finally come to that realization and can live with a
kindred spirit by allowing that person to be who they are.
After all, by doing what they normally do, they have become
the person they are, and isn't that who we fell in love
with in the first place?  It is difficult to let go like 
that, but believe me, when you find the right person, it
makes all the difference in the world.

Just an observation from here in the midwest.

From: The New Yorker
Date: 19 August 1997

"My brain says 'run' but the heart
says 'browse.'"  That sentiment appears as a
thought balloon above the head of a man facing
a woman with enough "emotional baggage" 
for an ocean cruise, in a cartoon by 
Adam Green that's posted (it looks literally
pasted) on this Boston-based love site.  Some visitors'
brains may have the same reaction; 
an editorial page ("Kirk Rambles Regarding 
Romance") is somewhat puerile, and much of
the correspondence is downright sophomoric.
But a glance at the site's collection of poetry
will get your heart in gear and put you back
in a browsing mood.  It has everything from
standard carpe-diem fare, such as "To His
Coy Mistress," to the more fatalistic "Theory,"
by Dorothy Parker, to surprises like Donald
Hall's whimsical "Valentine"-- all in all, a 
satisfying sampler of ruminations on love in 
its various conditions, coital and post-, 
present tense and past.

Though the site is collegiate in its over-all-
tone, it's ancient in Internet terms, having been 
up, in some form, since 1993.  Its creator, Kirk
Israel, is not ashamed to post his own fiction
(thought you may be ashamed to read it).  Other
prose collected here includes a snippet from
Tony Morrison's novel "Beloved" and a saucier 
offering from the ubiquitous Web siren
M.A. Mohanraj.  The response to Israel's literal
labor of love bears testament to the heart's
eternal folly.  The Blender has spawned a 
monthly journal, featuring more writing, brash
and impassioned.  The Heart-on-Sleeve corner
posts love poems and missives from visitors
(mainly women), most filled with longing and
self-pity.  It will make you feel young again.

From: abby -----     globrite@aol.com
Date: 27 August 1997

jeez-
so i see this site written up in my new yorker,
and i am feeling confused about a relationship 
i am in, and i come here and read all 
this wonderful poetry about love lost 
and letting go and i just hope it isn't some kind 
of sign.

From: z (zms@sprynet.com)
Date: 29 August 1997

I love your page.  Simply put.  I hope my own small works 
give value to your readers... as I myself enjoy reading the
tapestries of other hearts.  A thought for you though...
I often wonder what time people submit their poems, when
others feel their voices the strongest.  Is it in the dark 
of the night, when the heart gives voice to the words we see
here? Or in the bright light of day, when we can see most 
clearly the jewels in the tapestries?  I'd like to know...

And thank you for selecting one of mine for your August
Blender Digest.  Tis an honor.

-z

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