The Tiger Poet vs. GDPR

The deadline for becoming compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is getting nearer, and as it does so I must confess I'm nowhere nearer to understanding what that means for this blog, or indeed for Blogger in general.

For those of you who are unaware, GDPR is replacing the Data Protection Act 1998, as enacted by EU legislation. It will cover all publishers in EU countries as well as publishers who deal with the EU. As a UK-based blogger using Google Blogger, I and many other people come under that heading. To date, Google has sent out a bunch of emails explaining in broad terms to publishers what the change of legislation means and what they are doing to comply with it. They also explain how individual publishers can take steps to comply, but in terms of guidlines for those using Blogger, the advice has been at best vague and at worst non-existent.

I have searched far and wide to find any statement from Google as to how bloggers using their platform can comply with GDPR. The best I have found so far has been a discussion on a Google Products forum where several bloggers are questioning how Google will help them prepare for when the legislation kicks in on May 25th 2018. Google's response so far has been to issue generic statements asserting their commitment to preparing for GDPR and suggesting that we read their privacy policy or consult a lawyer to find out our obligations. Far from reassuring advice.

So far I've constructed a privacy policy for use on this blog, but an unsure if it will meet with GDPR requirements. Really, this is a call for clarity more than anything else. If anyone out there is reading this post and works for Google, please let me and other bloggers know how we can make our blogs GDPR compliant and how Google will assist us in this. Hopefully making a privacy policy will go some way to achieving this, but unless Google gives us a clearer view of what to do, we may run the risk getting caught out by the new legislation. We need to process people's personal data responsibly and within the law, but if we don't know the rules of play then things will get quite complicated.

I appreciate this is not the usual kind of thing I cover on this blog, but with the deadline for GDPR fast approaching, I think it's something worth talking about. If anyone out there is also confused by what the regulations mean for them, be sure to get in touch with Google to make your concerns known. Thankfully, I've got more fun stuff coming up, so stay tuned and I'll see you all again soon with more poetry. 

NaPoWriMo Completed Again

Okay, so maybe not tomorrow (sorry about that), but here it is. That's the end of NaPoWriMo for this year. Once again I somehow managed to get to the end of April without the poems turning into a stream of incomprehensible free verse.

How do I think it went this year? Mostly the poems turned out okay. I'm thankful that this year I didn't have to rely on my old tropes as much (the tigers, anthropomorphic animals playing musical instruments, or the rolling fields of Frynwys) and tried new things. The month started on a good note with a poem about a confused cuckoo at Easter, and then a poem about poetic structure followed, which is probably my favourite one out of this year's bunch. I hadn't attempted a poem about writing a poem before, so it was nice to set out what my creative writing tutors taught me in verse.

Otherwise, this year's NaPoWriMo was fairly similar to last year's. The usual subjects appeared in the form of animals, the natural world, allusions to music and so on, and of course the tiger came back to finish the month off. There haven't been many breaks from what I usually write about, but I think I made up for it by trying new things with poetic form. Also I should probably do more of the site's prompts next year because I'm certain I didn't try enough of them this time. Still, on the whole this year's NaPoWriMo has been mostly a success.

If you stuck with it to the end I hope you enjoyed the poetic chaos. In regards to what's coming up, I have the next installment of Frynwys Features nearly ready to go, my analysis of Harry Baker's 'Paper People' and a couple of new poems as always, so look out for those over the next few weeks. And the best bit of is, we're just in time for the start of summer.

Goodbye NaPoWriMo 2018, and have a great summer everyone!

NaPoWriMo #30: Spectre of Bali

Even the smallest member
of the family stands tall.

The Queen of Bali,
of the mangroves and the grasslands,
she prowled the dense jungles,
sending deer and birds fleeing,
shrinking from her shadow,
as fierce and revered
as her Indian brothers.

Those from across the sea
came seeking her,
to pay her homage
with steel and lead,
with the teeth of snap-traps
and bullets to the skull.

Every part of her had use,
to the visitors and her neighbours.
Her teeth and claws warded off evil,
her skin adorned the hunters' den,
her whiskers made the sharpest poison.

Such reverence and torment
scattered her to the winds of history.
A museum forms her tomb,
her bones laid in state,
her skin with the stripes faded,
her skull with the bullet hole
decorating her forehead.

Out in the mangroves
the deer sometimes cower
at a passing feline shadow,
a spectre
from the forests of yesterday.

(So ladies and gentlemen, that's it. NaPoWriMo is over for another year. To anyone who's followed my journey through the challenge this year, thanks for sticking around and I'm pleased that we got through it again this year. To my fellow poets who took on the challenge this year, well done for sticking with it to the end! I'll have my full thoughts on how I think it went this time out tomorrow at the latest. Thanks once again, and until next year, goodbye NaPoWriMo!)

NaPoWriMo #29: Mesozoic Summer

In the Mesozoic forests
the summer lingers all year.
Ferns and conifers lush
and dripping with moisture,
the effect of a greenhouse planet.

The kings of the earth roam
unfettered.
Pteosaurus, leather-winged
masters of the sky
dart above the canopy
snatching dragonflies.

Coelurus, quick-footed, shrewd,
the nightmare of mammals
cowering under the leaf litter,
while a bullish Stegosuaurs
crashes through the underbrush,
its psychedelic plates
pulsating against the green.

Out on the plains, giants assert
their presence without effort.
Diplodocus steps shake the earth,
dainty heads on preposterous necks,
tails swishing like gargantuan eels.
They scan the forest edge for enemies,
the packs of therepods
lusting after the potential
of such a gigantic feast.

(This is a poem I've thought for a while about doing, and now I think I've found the right way to do it. Hard to believe I started twenty nine days ago but it seems we've gotten through NaPoWriMo for another year. Only one more to go, so I'll see you tomorrow when we're finishing NaPoWriMo in style!)

NaPoWriMo #28: Railbound Vision

The glass of a carriage window,
granting views of the passing countryside,
a blurred tapestry morphing
into cold concrete and metal
of the rain-drenched cityscape.

Many hours are passed
staring through this window,
the fields, trees and rivers
blending into daydreams
of snapshots from the past
and hopes for the future,
a crystal ball looking both ways.

Then the monotone announcer
tells no one in particular
that the train will be arriving at...
And the kaleidoscope vision
dissipates.

NaPoWriMo #27: Acacia Siesta

The savannah simmers in the heat of midday.
A single impala wanders the plains
keeping one eye fixed on a nearby tree,
the danger underneath it not hard to see.

Six lions rest in the acacia's shade,
the pride male watching the grassland haze.
All of this he fought for and won by force,
a cycle of violence runs it usual course.

The cats sleep easy with their hunger sated.
A night comes the hunt for which they've waited.
The buffalo huddle close, but they're unprepared,
the lions attack what no one else dares.

NaPoWriMo #26: Whitewall

Sitting in a whitewall room,
designed for your comfort,
to help you unwind,
also to assure anyone
looking through the online prism
that this room
is a quality place
to spend a few nights.

The blankness of the paint
sterilises the mind,
and the best hope of sanity
lies beyond the window pane,
yet all you can see is the rain.

The walls scream in silence
for a splash of splendour,
just a dash of colour
to give them some way
of expressing themselves,
yet the whitewall smothers the
into brushstroke uniformity.