Sorting out my soul
I'm embarrassed to be admitting this, after somehow forgetting to just try out what we are being asked to experiment with on the Iowa course. My reward is to be able to read and comment on others' experiments.
It took another horrible chest pain to get me to do this, and a visit to the doctor. He didn't tell me to do anything, just listened when I said I knew it was a warning shot from the deep to sort out some things. He asked whether I'd wait for it to happen again before I acted. Do my notes say "Sarah likes to pretend all is ok"?
19 years ago
T was born on 2nd August 1995, there was a bit of a thunder storm that night over Oxford as I looked out of the windows at the Radcliffe. Many hours later he was born, in the afternoon. It really does split my life in two, before and after the first birth. I think the moment of moving from one life to the next was the moment he was given to me and I felt him in my arms, hot and wet against the skin of my belly. Nothing compares. Even then we didn't know he was a he, all that umbilical cord, I couldn't see and needed to look into his dark blue eyes again. It is so, so physical.
---
From drafts. This was from last week.
Showing posts with label Iowa Mooc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iowa Mooc. Show all posts
Sunday, 10 August 2014
Sunday, 27 July 2014
Sounding like your parents - ModPo Plus - Stuck - Live streaming
Sounding like your parents
H and I were hanging around in front of an all male chat show. He told me that he has started to use phrases his father uses, and makes comments like that ad is so sexist just like me. Then he and I both said in unison 'Need to get out more!' So he needs to get away from his parents.
ModPo Plus
ModPo Plus is ready for the 2nd and 3rd timers to study this autumn. An explanation by Prof Al Filreis. I imagine he is having the time of his life being able to share his love for his subject with so many people via all the tech now available. Tech also happens to be one of his things.
Stuck
I'm still stuck on assignment 4 for Iowa. 5 and 6 are needed too. Do I just skip number 4 and not mind? Possibly a good idea. Or post something I am not happy with? Just do it and not mind too much? Focus and make a decision. Any decision. Move on.
Live streaming
It is hugely disturbing to watch live stream on tv from Gaza. In a way it is worse seeing that nothing is happening, that means it is about to happen, the lights twinkle a bit, it is late at night, the stillness is all wrong.
All because of politicians, given the power and responsibility, who don't know what to do. Adults should know what to do, but they don't. They don't with special needs, with countless things, and they don't with whole countries.
A good thing the earth spins without our involvement. Humans just know the absolute minimum to get by. So there's a reason to try to do my best and not fuck up so often.
I helped sort out a 180 degree misunderstanding between 2 non-English writers on Facebook. Probably the most important thing I have done for weeks. Just 2 lines. It has probably only helped by one hair's breadth, but even so, that's worth it.
H and I were hanging around in front of an all male chat show. He told me that he has started to use phrases his father uses, and makes comments like that ad is so sexist just like me. Then he and I both said in unison 'Need to get out more!' So he needs to get away from his parents.
ModPo Plus
ModPo Plus is ready for the 2nd and 3rd timers to study this autumn. An explanation by Prof Al Filreis. I imagine he is having the time of his life being able to share his love for his subject with so many people via all the tech now available. Tech also happens to be one of his things.
Stuck
I'm still stuck on assignment 4 for Iowa. 5 and 6 are needed too. Do I just skip number 4 and not mind? Possibly a good idea. Or post something I am not happy with? Just do it and not mind too much? Focus and make a decision. Any decision. Move on.
Live streaming
It is hugely disturbing to watch live stream on tv from Gaza. In a way it is worse seeing that nothing is happening, that means it is about to happen, the lights twinkle a bit, it is late at night, the stillness is all wrong.
All because of politicians, given the power and responsibility, who don't know what to do. Adults should know what to do, but they don't. They don't with special needs, with countless things, and they don't with whole countries.
A good thing the earth spins without our involvement. Humans just know the absolute minimum to get by. So there's a reason to try to do my best and not fuck up so often.
I helped sort out a 180 degree misunderstanding between 2 non-English writers on Facebook. Probably the most important thing I have done for weeks. Just 2 lines. It has probably only helped by one hair's breadth, but even so, that's worth it.
Monday, 21 July 2014
Why Iowa Mooc is hard and different - South Bank Poetry International Festival
Iowa
The assignments are based on varieties of form, structure and method. The subject matter is totally open. That is what makes it so daunting. I have to let today's concerns come to me. Then I need to mix them with the task and post a result I like enough to represent my one go at the assignment. Then I have to hope someone comments on what I have done.
I am doing my best to comment on as-yet-uncommented-upon work by others. Casting my bread on the waters. It is best to decide to comment on a piece before reading it, rather like accepting a child in advance. Picking and choosing pieces went nowhere for me when I tried it, I just read each piece fast and was unable to decide which one to reply to.
How Writers Write Poetry | Open Courses @ the Writing University
South Bank
Related: I saw Robert Hass read on Thursday night at the Purcell Room on the South Bank. It really was him. Just the same as on the video. He signed my copy of his book. Just have a go at his lecture...listen to the lines he quotes...
Because of that sudden trip to London I heard Ana Blandiana for the first time and bumped into her in the book buying queue. Actually, I said to the lady on my left that I was being bad by wanting to have a look at the book first before deciding to buy it, then I recognised she was standing just there by my right elbow! After that mistake I asked her to sign it before I'd even paid...
The assignments are based on varieties of form, structure and method. The subject matter is totally open. That is what makes it so daunting. I have to let today's concerns come to me. Then I need to mix them with the task and post a result I like enough to represent my one go at the assignment. Then I have to hope someone comments on what I have done.
I am doing my best to comment on as-yet-uncommented-upon work by others. Casting my bread on the waters. It is best to decide to comment on a piece before reading it, rather like accepting a child in advance. Picking and choosing pieces went nowhere for me when I tried it, I just read each piece fast and was unable to decide which one to reply to.
How Writers Write Poetry | Open Courses @ the Writing University
South Bank
Related: I saw Robert Hass read on Thursday night at the Purcell Room on the South Bank. It really was him. Just the same as on the video. He signed my copy of his book. Just have a go at his lecture...listen to the lines he quotes...
Because of that sudden trip to London I heard Ana Blandiana for the first time and bumped into her in the book buying queue. Actually, I said to the lady on my left that I was being bad by wanting to have a look at the book first before deciding to buy it, then I recognised she was standing just there by my right elbow! After that mistake I asked her to sign it before I'd even paid...
Tuesday, 1 July 2014
Right now
This is where I am at right now: sketching-for-poets-notes-on-a-how-to-talk-by-robert-hass/
It is a free class from Iowa, and I am with a bunch of fellow ModPo students. Will I send my 52 peers over there too?
Anyway, try it and see: how-writers-write-poetry-mooc
It is a free class from Iowa, and I am with a bunch of fellow ModPo students. Will I send my 52 peers over there too?
Anyway, try it and see: how-writers-write-poetry-mooc
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