Poety types speaking directly to me and you

Newest blogs on my sidebar: Shezea Quaishi and Roy Marshall

Both added because they speak directly to the reader and to themselves. I like that a lot.

Winter visiting

This year it means visiting friends every day. 4 days in a row so far. Other years we have been much more home based or snowed in. My brother even drove up from London today. I'll be with a friend in her studio tomorrow night. This is great. I am handing out more Christmas cards as I go, I did a bit of forward planning. This year the juggernaut that is Christmas is simply rolling on over us all.

My insides don't know what to do with themselves when I hear this: Drift by Caroline Bergvall. I so, so want to get to watch and hear this whole piece. It's a combination of dreading the outcome of any trip in a motor boat and adoring the continuous tension of the humming music crossed by her seagull voice.

The Quiet Compere tour 2014 - Sarah Dixon runs this and is writing it up. Part 1 and Part 2 are published so far. Quite a few names are familiar to me from 52.

Amazingly, she has booked me for a 10 min slot at the Oxford one in May. It's lucky I have enough poems already as I have stopped writing. Why?? Maybe my fingers are too cold and we sit on the sofa watching black and white films until 2am. Too much facebook, or too little? Not enough trouble coming my way? Not in the mood at some level.

'What shall we do about stale cake?'

'Who were the protest group called 99%?'

'What does that all mean?'

Pascal Petit's blog: I think she is the one for me, poetry and the Tate Modern. Look down the list of previous blog posts on the right hand side of her page. She is coming to Oxford for a workshop on Sat 28th Feb.

Jude Cowan Montague has a blog

How did it take me so long to find it?

Jude

I look forward to trawling through the archives.

Early July 2014 new blogs

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/07/02/radical-middle/ Because it quoted John Ashbery and I read it out loud to myself, without actually making a sound.

Because of that I could sense his particular changes of rhythm and choices of words. Everyone makes their own choices and shares their nature via these choices.

An email, an assignment for modpo or a Facebook update, they can all be read as hand prints. So gaze between and through the words to see how it is for the writer and how they are made internally.

Every line break and change of topic, slight error of grammar or letter missing is like a breath or a whisper in my ear.

http://www.theislandreview.com/ Because of the 7 minute short film from the Faeroes, which I haven't watched yet, but it's one of those things that I know I will like.

Now I have seen it. Filming is like choosing the right words, that action can make something beautiful.

Late June new blogs to try out

http://arabizi.wordpress.com/2011/07/05/say-it-in-arabic-please-arabic-language-rights-restored/  Learner of Arabic, nice to see someone else going through this. "Every lesson has been humbling, illuminating the distant boundaries of my infinite ignorance" Yes, that's it in a nutshell. The writer is much more eloquent than I am, so is a pleasure to read.

https://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199202/london.s.oriental.bookshops.htm Surprising source of interesting articles.

http://sabotagereviews.com/ I was told about this at lunch time by my cousin, in exchange I introduced her to my favourite bookshop, the Albion Beatnik Bookstore in Oxford.

http://minalhajratwala.com/sketching-for-poets-notes-on-a-how-to-talk-by-robert-hass/ Fellow student in my current poetry mooc, such clear notes on the first lecture. Lecture is entirely the wrong word for a verbal and visual sharing such as this.

Mid June - new blogs to try out

bloodaxeblogs - because the back posts look interesting, being by Astley. No new posts though.

sonofabook - because I like the tone of his writing.

yrakha - because I was led on to another blog about contemporary Arabic writing.

qisasukhra - ...this one.

ambitmagazine - because Navid Hamzavi read out his piece to us at the Albion Beatnik Bookstore this Sunday.

Where am I? End May 2014 - 4 new blogs added

http://nacimpakshiraz.wordpress.com/blog/ Lecturer on Iranian films at Edinburgh University. Useful because I am in a little Middle Eastern Film club of 3. We post dvds to each other and watch them in turn.

http://backroompoets.blogspot.co.uk/ Because I have been along to one meeting so far. It is remarkable to be with a dozen people all reading out their own work, then analysing and making suggestions for improvements while the writer sits in a receptive silence. Will I dare to take anything more personal next time? Will there be a next time?

http://pro-lernen.ch/blog/ German language autonomous home education blog. Home ed is legal in Switzerland, but illegal in Germany, remember that.

http://murielecamac.blogspot.co.uk/ French language poetry blog. I want to restart reading French since it is available to me, even if it seems utterly unfamiliar somehow, like something I used to do many years ago.

New blogs to try out

http://elisabethjaquette.wordpress.com/ She did a review of Banipal 49, which needs more coverage.

http://kelloggoxford.wordpress.com/ I went to a seminar there, met a friend on the way in, hugged her, then told her I had 'seminar quakes' and she, most flatteringly, asked if I were giving it!! Well, no! The person who was giving it was Jenny Lewis.

http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/ Well, well, he is interested in many of the things I am interested in, and follows some of the same blogs. I heard him speak about Paul Celan on a Kelly Writers House video.

Mid April - 4 new blogs - British Museum - Crowd Sourced Project - Sarah Irving - Matt Merritt

http://blog.amarawest.britishmuseum.org/ Why not?

http://crowdsourced.micropasts.org/ Which leads on to this project anyone can help with. I once took part in a crowd sourced project to identify simple aspects of distant galaxies, so this is similar: thrilling, but safe. You can't break anything.

http://sarahirving.wordpress.com/tag/poetry/ Arabic poetry.

http://polyolbion.blogspot.co.uk/ Matt Merritt, I found this via another blog..

April 2014 - 3 new blogs

https://walkinginacircle.wordpress.com/ Does poetry readings with someone I know.

http://iwaswritingaboutyou.tumblr.com/ Also does poetry readings...

http://psychogeographicreview.com/?p=939 Has a post about Liz Lefroy, who also does readings...

3 more blogs - March

http://anthonywilsonpoetry.com/ Personal and reflective blog.

http://www.beyondtreasure.co.uk/ New blog, written by someone I know from a Facebook group on home education.

http://www.writeoutloud.net/ Found via the 52 Facebook group I am thrilled to be part of.

Yet more new blogs, incuding one I encouraged to be started

http://earthrepairblog.wordpress.com/ I encouraged this blogger to get going.

http://notborninenglish.wordpress.com/ Scroll down to the January 15th 2014 post about writing your own personal dictionary.

http://poemworks.blogspot.co.uk/  ModPo and on the Facebook group for it too.

End of January new blogs

http://www.thethepoetry.com/ I suddenly got John Ashbery via this blog.

http://notborninenglish.wordpress.com/ See her create new forms.

http://garethprior.org/ A neighbour passed me this blog, she knows him.

http://thepatwinslow.blogspot.co.uk/ Poetry in prison, based near Oxford.

3 more new blogs

http://www.incidentalcomics.com/ Ministry of Poetry poster

http://fiftytwopoetry.wordpress.com/ "What is poetry for? Everything. "

http://www.chris.fewin.gs/  Go and click on 'In the beginning she created the breast'

More new blogs - early January

http://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/

http://raymmaxx.wordpress.com/

http://www.inksweatandtears.co.uk/

http://rashabellydance.co.uk/blog/

http://blogbaladi.com/

Next batch of 5 blogs

http://sloopie72.wordpress.com/

http://talkingleavesblog.wordpress.com/

http://solsticemama-nell.blogspot.co.uk/

http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.co.uk/

http://houseofaimless.wordpress.com/

ModPo classmates...home education....more classmates...

Early Dec 2013 new blog finds

http://threecuriousboys.wordpress.com/ Home ed, of course

http://scribblerbean.com/ ModPo, of course!

http://screamofconsciousnessetc.blogspot.in/ Also ModPo

All new blogs added in November 2013

http://wovember.com/2013/10/27/the-wovember-wal/ Wool

http://notstrictlyhomeed.blogspot.co.uk Silent sheepdog training

http://prufrocksdilemma.wordpress.com/ Also doing ModPo class

http://faithmummy.wordpress.com/ Stuff

http://theinvisiblestrings.com/ More helpful stuff

http://mumblingsontheverge.wordpress.com/ To home ed or not to home ed

http://cadee.blogspot.co.uk/ Close reading poetry

http://djennedjenno.blogspot.co.uk/ Helping to preserve manuscripts in Djenne

http://www.asifyourlife.blogspot.co.uk/ Poetry in UK

http://peculiaritiesandreticences.wordpress.com/ Community TA from ModPo class

For reference: Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein

Tender Buttons

Ongoing close readings are here at The Steiny Road

I'm going to suggest to myself that I write out each one by hand as I get to it, starting from the current one, Mildred's Umbrella, and catching up as and when.

ModPo....join if you dare...putting the link again would be overkill, so I won't.

---

I now see there are three parts to Tender Buttons: Objects, Food and Rooms.

More July Blog Finds

http://haroldthing.blogspot.co.uk/ I like the short written pieces from a while ago. No current work, but who knows when he may restart? The writer publishes a poetry magazine I enjoy, 'Obsessed with Pipework'. Where did that name come from?

takemetoafrica I don't know how I stumbled across this one. The writer is on a trip returning to her birth country. A brave step.

shiningegg Lots of links in the text. I like the photos and the art. I look forward to reading back through the archives. Linking to a blog is like buying a book which keeps on getting extra chapters in it.

ambientehotel Try it and see. I got there via a book review

markneary1dotcom1 This blog's real name is 'Love, Belief and Balls'! I signed something on Twitter or somewhere else to back up this family a while ago, so it's very good to see them reunited. Similar to seeing an Amnesty person being released from a hideous jail and popping up on Twitter again on my timeline.

http://zisforzen.com/2012/02/ I added this one because I like the way the writer reflects on her own reactions to things and because she's experimenting with unschooling. She's also into RDI, which I never got beyond the first page on, though it looks very helpful.

http://ethicalfeminism.wordpress.com/ It's time for me to learn more about current feminism. I'm so glad it has come back to the fore after all these years.

http://www.karlremarks.com/ Sending up Middle East politics.

http://thescallopshell.wordpress.com/ Another poetry blog, direct writing, linked to current events, eg The Baby and the Hot Weather.