Who is Elias Tobias?  The real interview excerpts

By an independent Internet publisher

Click here for the entire interview.

IIP:  Thank you for taking a few minutes of your time to talk with us today.

E.T.:  No problem. I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the web blog.

IIP:  There has been a recorded dramatic increase in the ranking of the World of Words? Why has this happened?

E.T.: I don’t know. My web site hasn’t changed much over the last year or so, I am surprised at this.  For three years, I had a daily post and remained in the low 6 million world ranking. Now that I have reduced the number of the daily posts and wanted readers to look at what I have developed of the years, the monthly percentage has increase more than 1500 percent. I hope it continues. The challenge now is to make the web blog appealing to maintain the numbers, I suppose.  Do I change much or anything just to keep up the ratings?  Does it really matter? I started this thing with the hopes I would get noticed and someday get invited by a publisher to put together at least one book of my on poems, instead of contests that publish an anthology of many authors.  I just wanted people to read my poems.

IIP:  What do you say to those who don’t like your style of writing?

E.T.:  There are as many styles as there are writers, and there are at least 50,000 to 100,000 poetry web sites around the world. I am pleased that people like my work, but I know somewhere, someplace, a younger writer is starting his or her own blog.  I encourage that.   If people don’t like what I do, then they can start their own poetry site. I have an article on the World of Words that tells them how to do it.

IIP:  Why do you write, then, and what is your inspiration?

E.T.: At first I started writing because it was easy for me to do, and I could express how I felt about things around me, but that sort of thinking is destined only for diaries.  There came a point when I wanted people to enjoy what I wrote. So I went away from the very personal nature of writing to a more public style, and names mentioned were not real people, but symbolic composites of people I knew.

IIP:  What is your inspiration, then?

E.T.: Anything and everything.  I may do a certain task over and over and realize something special about it, or I see something in a different way even though I’ve passed it 100 times before.  The media is my inspiration: music, TV, things I see and hear I react to them. My friends… my wife, Patty, is often an inspiration when she throws out a one-liner in conversation and it stick with me.

IIP:  Do you have any advice for those poets just starting out with their own web sites?
E.T.:   Yes. Be yourself. Try to create a sense of self…a brand of sorts, so people can recognize your work.  This can be done by certain marketing and technical practices, but ultimately, it’s the words that carry the web site to its destiny.  Once a poem is out in cyberspace, it is free child, and you can’t control it really.  In a sense I have more than 200 children out there, not biologically or course, but symbolically. The poems are a part of me.

IIP:  Thank you for your time. Elias.
E.T:  Thanks for letting me tell the world who I am, and perhaps people can better understand my work.

Natural Beauty

(Photos by Mike Hall)

The wooded areas of Brown County State Park show that even in the winter, there is art in nature.

Would you like to start your own poetry blog? Learn how to do this in three easy steps.

The Final Frontier

Brother Christopher Benedict knows about family and the time be sometimes be alone.
The Final Frontier 

There isn’t much room in my space,
because it is filled with family and
people i know at work.
When I open the door to let
someone special in, the vacuum
is quickly filled, the final frontier
seems sealed
and i have no space left for me.
It becomes their space.
Then i make room for me
to breathe,
finally,
and I get my space back.

Want to know how to get your work published? Get the facts here.

Synchronized lights

(Photo by Mike Hall)

A house in Westfield, Indiana, has thousands of synchronized lights to special holiday music broadcast through a short range radio frequency, and it was one of the top ten decorated houses in the Indianapolis area.
Videos on You Tube from the World of Words by Elias Tobias tap into the many faces of the poetry blog.

Garden of Tranquility

Brother Rufus McDougal continues his flirting with his words and his experiences.This is inspired in part from his work to create an oriental garden for a friend.
Garden of Tranquility 

Take three steps of truth, love and
wisdom to the seat of peace.
Meditate on the water of life from
the fountain of harmony.
Then the parts of your world
will fall in their proper place.

Like a friendly scavenger hunt? Learn more about this web blog with two Elias Tobias Trivia Quizzes.

Cool Ride

(Photo by Mike Hall)

An antique tricycle is part of the art decoration in front of a hotel in Nashville, Indiana.  The area is noted for it’s special shopping experiences and as an art colony.
Do you have a poem that you would like to share? Submit your work to the Free Open Poetry Forum.

Cold, old friends

Brother Karl Dobson is showing his age when he talks about his age in this poem.  Maybe he wrote is a few years ago.
Cold, old friends 

Love has its price, and for it
To succeed takes sacrifice.
Friends say it’s a weak link.
Sometimes you can think.
When you don’t stay strong,
And troubles come along,
Then feelings start to fall
Until there is none at all.

My friends are wrong.
On those dark, long nights
I’ll have someone by my side.
I won’t be alone come daylight.
I know there will be a day
When they’ll believe what I say.
I’ll be happily in love when I’m old,
When their lives are getting cold.

Learn 10 ways how you can harness the Power of Words with modern technology.

The Elvis Snowman

(Photos by Mike Hall)

Even tough there was not a lot of snow in Indianapolis over the holidays, there was enough to make a small snowman, like this one with a touch of  an Elvis hair do.

Want to know more about the members of Lambda Sigma Chi? Click here to meet the members of the unofficial fraternity.

It’s the little things in life that count so much

Brother Levi Jacobs work tells a truth from his experiences, and we c an all learn from him.
It’s the little things in life that count so much 

It’s the little things in life that count so much.
They start out small, but soon they add up
to years spent with different people at different places.
A welcoming smile from a friend after a bad day stays
in your mind, and it can always be found when needed.
The taste of a special meal lingers miles away from the
location, and it never tastes the same served elsewhere.
The feel of a change of weather brings a tornado of
emotions that can never fade, regardless of experience.
Sounds of a train rides around the track in your mind,
and the texture of the sand on your toes wants you
to think you could live forever on the beach.
It’s the little things in life that count so much.

Do you have a start of a poem, but the words just aren’t right? Go for help at the Poetry First Aid.

January 2011 Newsletter

Newsletter for the World of Words by Elias Tobias

Poem moves up to next round in contest

The poem, “Waiting, too,” has been promoted to the next round of judging in a contest sponsored by Eber and Wein Publishing of Shrewsbury, PA., and the poem will be included in the book, Best Poets of 2010, being published by the company.  Elias Tobias wants to be one of the 121 contest winners to be announced in February, including a grand prize of $2,000 and $13,000 in other prizes.  Only the top 15 percent of the poets reviewed by the company were invited to contribute to anthology and compete in the year’s last contest.  More on the results later.

Annual LSC Reunion Update

This year’s reunion event, will continue to be annual get together after several days of meeting the families of the Lambda Sigma Chi fraternity at the Embassy Hotel in Indianapolis last month Elias Tobias was the host of the family reunion.  We all had the opportunity to meet the newest member of the unofficial fraternity, Levi Jacobs and his family.  The Secret Santa gift exchange went over very, well, too.

Changes coming to poetry web blog

The New Year will bring changes to the World of Words by Elias Tobias.  No regular schedule of posts will happen.  Also, the contract for the column by Rev. Abernathy will end, and he said the experience has been good.  Since he is getting busier, he has decided not to continue the column, All Things Considered, for another year.

The supply of poems has been rapidly used after three years of daily posts.  I would like to keep the newer poems by the brothers on the site, especially as the unofficial fraternity has expanded.

As the creative spirit moves in to my world, I will have other posts, both poetic and photographic, but not on a regular basis. There are more than 300 poems and other features of this web blog to read, so those who have not had a chance to catch up on a daily basis will have plenty to read.

 Poem of the Month

Things can get complicated

It starts so simple, but things can get complicated
When rules are added, and things change.
People fall in love and then start a family,
Not knowing what the future will bring.
When the couple gets married, the rules
Of the game become legal and permanent,
Until, for some, there is this thing called divorce,
Making relationships even more complicated.

It starts so simple, but things can get complicated
When a new concept grows into a company,
That has to stay profitable or face bankruptcy.
The first idea has to be protected, altered,
Enlarged, stronger, powerful, new or improved.
It takes more people to get all that done, and
It is easy to lose sight of why the idea came
Around because people get too busy working.

It starts so simple, but things can get complicated
When a joke goes too far and some think it’s real.
The pranksters don’t know how to act or feel.
It becomes a big media event with a song and
Dance, and categories are made for participants.
Hundreds of thousands come to see what
The hype is all about, causing logistical problems
Like parking, security and having a first-aid station.

It starts so simple, but things can get complicated
When expectations grow beyond what we know.

Who is Elias Tobias? Go to his biography that is also in Spanish.