In the past I attemped to bring together other writers to form networks but screwed that up. Perhaps I really am a narcissist but from now on I'm on my own.
The fact is: I am a compulsive writer who would write hundreds, perhaps thousands of words every day even if no one ever read them. (I started out that way.) Thankfully, tens of thousands of readers come back every month to see what I’ve been doing. I’d like to thank every one of you for visiting BloggingPoet.com as well as my now defunct children's site, LaureatesKids.com. Thanks Ya’ll.
I still look like the man in the pictures below except that I've lost weight and gained more grey hair. Who knew grey was lighter than brown?
Now that Billy has his own toy store we'll never get him to shut up.
What Others Are Saying About Billy
Named one of Greensboro's Ten Best Blogs by Yes Weekly.
“...I'll be visiting Billy's voluminous site and learning from his imminent blognosity.” -Stewart Pittman, AKA: Lenslinger
“Este bloggin poet, presenta poemas que van de lo urbano a lo lirico. Una buena recomendación.” Espacio Muerto
“Billy the Blogging Poet, can be credited with pretty much any blog who you don?t know the author, at least until that author comes up and tells you that you?re wrong. Billy, you are an amazingly busy and schizophrenic dude.” Woody Cavnaugh
“His skill set includes the ability to expand the size of a blog ten thousand fold. And he does it with his hands. Quite remarkable really, when you consider that in just one day, his productivity was 600,000%. And this is why he is not a lackbeard.” AnonyMoses
“the actual, bona fide, #1 poet blogger extant.” WOLves
"Then begins his magical tale, a new classic for all to enjoy- regardless of our age." iddybud
“The blog is amazing. Poems that are well written, posts that actually entertained me, short stories about his life, and guest bloggers who all make the cut fill this site up.” Brent Todd
“This man is the perfect example of a great American.” The Interloper
"Billy is witty & so clever; his rhymes are apt & sharp as ever; we met in Greensboro with bloggers-so-thorough; may your days be happy endeavors." Filmmaker Jill M. Foster
"Billy Jones ... will somebody make me shut up if I say: "Billy Jones is a chronical poet, a creative intellectual and an insistent and productive blogger and publisher in the web with a whole lot of energy." -Wilbau
"Yours is one of the best sites on the net, please don't stop." -Glen
"Billy Jones has some cool links - political, poetic, and humorous." -Allen Taylor World Class Poet.
"Billy Jones is a cool dude who writes poetry, short stories and so much more - his writing always brings a laugh and smile." -Sassi
"I did some checking up on Billy Jones.. He has a wonderful site. Has wonderful poetry for kids of all ages.. He has some wonderful short stories. He will get you to smiling when you read his works. I think I would like to talk to him face to face.. I love to laugh.. I bet he would have me laughing all day long..." -Linda
"Lovely site.. wonderful poetry and thoughts." Kathy Ostman-Magnusen
"How was I to know he's grow up to be a good for nothing poet? And a blogger too? His brothers all turned out fine. They've even got jobs. And hair-cuts!" -Billy's Mother
THE TRUTH... SORTA
Billy The Blogging Poet "TM", AKA: Poet Laureate Of North America "TM", AKA: Billy Jones, was born July 1, 1956 in Alamance County Hospital in Graham, North Carolina. (It was dark that night.) The hospital was later moved to Burlington, Billy's family (who understandably prefer to remain anonymous) moved to Greensboro, North Carolina in 1958 where Billy grew up.
While currently residing in Greensboro, North Carolina, Billy has lived in Virginia, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota, and very briefly in California. His travels have taken him to 48 states, much of Canada, and many Mexican border towns where Billy learned the hard way to drink only Tequila and stay away from the Donkey shows. Billy has two x-wives, a grown son, a black cat (cat ran off just like wives) a 1978 van, a 200 MPG motorized bicycle, chickens, earthworms and a new homemade airplane-- sorta
A long-haul trucker for 28 years who also toured much of the country on a 1978 Harley Davidson motorcycle, Billy first began writing of his experiences and fiction at the age of 38. A few years later (2000) Billy published his first book, Carrot On A Stick,
Billy is the former founding editor of Poets101.com-- a part of the AltMedia101.com Network owned and managed by Publisher Roch Smith Jr. Billy, along with one of his brothers, are the founders of StreetPlanes.
Billy's first love is poetry-- not the sort of highbrow poetry that most think of when thinking of poetry, but the sort of poetry that can be enjoyed even by people who claim not to like poetry. Billy also writes the children's poetry blog, LaureatesKids.com. Billy's influences include Mark Twain, Frank Yearby Yerby, Richard Ball, AR Lewis, Owen Meredith, Hervey Allen, Ouida, Ernest Hemmingway, James Whitcomb Riley, Robert Service, O' Henry, and most notibly, Shel Silverstein, to which Billy is sometimes flattered to be compared. Billy has penned over 30 books including several volumes of poetry, children's books, novels, and a trillogy that includes a cookbook with recipies in rhyming verse, in the ten years since he began writing and attributes his huge volume of works to the fact that he lived much of a lifetime before he began writing. Besides, his motto is: 'Cause There's Nothin' Better To Do...
Since beginning his first blog in August 2002, Billy has fallen in love with the medium moving his blog several times before coming to BloggingPoet.com.
Billy's interest include travel, photography (all the photos at BloggingPoet.com are his) walking, camping, canoing, and scantily clad, younger women. When he's not blogging he's usually thinking of what to blog about next month. He's a compulsive writer who averages over 1000 words a day while still working a full-time delivery job so blogging fits him to a tee. Update: As of early June 2006, Billy became a full-time blogger scraping out a pittance by doing what he loves. Billy is also the first organizer of the wildly successful Greensboro Bloggers which has been recognized nationally for its associations with local media and bloggers worldwide.
Billy is currently considering a trip around the country county on his airplane and recently published his fourth book, Reindeer Tales.
Boilerplate:
A North Carolina native and son of a Southern sharecropper, Billy Jones grew up in Greensboro but spent most of his adult life traveling throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The self titled, Poet Laureate of Greensboro, North Carolina ™ Poet Laureate Of North America ™ has published several books, writes the popular blogs, BloggingPoet.com and LaureatesKids.com, and refuses to submit his works to poetry contests and others seeking to capitalize on the sad state of poets today.
