Fixing situations

I told the man in the cafe that I was thinking of going on a demo with a friend. He said there was no point, because it wouldn't change anything. So I explained that it would make me feel better, but that I had no expectations of fixing the situation. As with a bad marriage, no one on the outside can fix it in the slightest.

Remote cafe visit with my mother

I called her while I was walking along the street
She agreed to chat a few minutes later once I'd found my cafe
So I found a table in the sunshine and we talked until my credit ran out

This 3 line business is getting wearing. There's something a bit false and prissy about it. We talked about this and that. I wasn't too sure about one of the stories she told me, but had no evidence at all to decide that it was a mis-remembering. Just because I had never heard that particular story doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Apparently she had taken a taxi with me at 2/3 days old, to get home from hospital. The house had been cold and empty because my father was still driving my grandmother all the way North to Lancashire from London. I can't believe he drove all the way there and back. That's crazy. But who knows, maybe that is what happened? March up there must have been perishing. How did they survive?

15 - 20 = 1979 - 1984 ... Little Arabic Torture Trick

1979 - 1984

That was a big set of years to pick pictures for. Pretty much all the actual events of those years slipped between the gaps, just like last time.

So many exams, awful results, retaking them all, fine in the end

Bicycling round London day and night

Ballet and skating

Dancing here and there

Sailing across the Channel, deciding never to do that again

Travelling on my own, with another, Paris, Germany, Austria, Venice, Belgrade, Athens, Mycenae, Corinth, South of France, Scotland

Parties, going to them, giving them..!

Reading anything I wanted to

First funeral, first invitation to a wedding

First many things

Working, how could I forget?, all those temporary jobs, I never worked for free

Durham, the beautiful abstract paintings on the walls of the dining room, hung on huge white walls

Meeting people's parents

Living in my grandparents' house while they were abroad and I was working in the summer

An amazing tutor who never smiled, but was utterly serious and respectful, Louis Allen. His room was full of everything including a small stuffed alligator on his desk, but I never plucked up the courage to ask to take a photo of him.

I have just found a paragraph he wrote on fiction, which explains :

Here’s some further inspiration from the great Japan scholar and translator, Louis Allen:

‘In order to know a nation fully you have to go beyond knowing the way it expresses itself in its laws, its military behaviour, and its political systems. You have to know the way it talks about itself unconciously and through its fiction. In other words, the fiction of a nation is as important as the facts of a nation if we want to know it properly.’

Torture trick

Try this to warp your mind: put a white board behind you, take the marker in your left hand if you are right handed and write out the whole alphabet on it as beautifully as you can. I only managed 4 letters, on a horrible downward slant! I'm sure I could write it upside down and with my left hand, but only if it were in front of me.

Evening out - Making pizza dough - 3 lines

Our drinks together turned into a 3 hour chat time
We have plans, lots of plans
It is good to be able to hang around together

H and I did what the recipe said
We stirred the flour into the well of liquid
We took turns kneading the dough

This is one way of making sure the lines are short
Experimenting is helpful
I don't care so much any more

Who brings out the best in you?

I can't predict who will do this with me.
Each person is the catalyst for their own version of me.
I only see the version of them I bring to life.

I read a paragraph about the personal nature of syntax yesterday.
It got me so deeply,
my hand-writing untangled itself.

What do you need?

I have found a weekly dance session....
so I am happy in advance.
I have been looking for years.

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.

Mohammed El-Deeb - Kutti Revathi

Two of the performers at the Launch of International Poetry Festival on the South Bank, London:

Mohammed El_Deeb from Egypt - shook the place, very loud

Kutti Revathi from Tamil Nadu - massive applause

In a terrible mood, so googling Kurani instead - Visiting a school - Volunteering

Kurani

list of books to look into, wander about in, read as distraction from vocab, family and news
- http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/recent-palestinian-literary-activism#.U9EfZYBdXpw

writing about listening to poets' stories, not really to their poetry at all - http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/6782/new-texts-out-now_khaled-furani-silencing-the-sea_

Visiting a school

I think the Head could read my mind as I sat there asking unanswerable questions. I said there was a lot of history and she just said there always is with situations like this.

Volunteering

I may have found a place to volunteer which will provide opportunities to use my bits of arabic. Let's see what actually happens...my arabic plans keep on falling through, or rather changing completely...Is this the message: Everything changes except the words themselves.

Conversations needed

Lots of simple points in this post by Suhail Al Gosaibi of Bahrain. They seem simple, but many people have travelled far and wide and lived long in order to put them into words.

Just like being a parent, all those years and it comes down to food! Or smiling. Or doing the laundry. Or being able to say that you need to say that again, I couldn't hear you properly. Or saying that there is no clear budget now, but there will be in the future.

The link between the two situations is having a familiar practical structure for chatting together. I am in the middle of arranging one weekend a month to stay with my parents. That will mean hanging around together at breakfast and in the evenings, plus total permission to buzz off to do whatever I want all day long.

Here I just go in and chat with my mother in law, eat biscuits in her kitchen, or bring in my cup of tea with me. Then we can discuss some of the things which are bothering us right there and then. We can also talk about the same thing over and over again, but from slightly different angle We know which subjects set us off. I can hear her accent become stronger as she speaks about something close to her heart.

If there is mistrust each side has to start from a dignified position. A prisoner can hardly start to trust his jailer. Only once he is free can there be even a glimmer of mutual respect.

/http://suhailalgosaibi.com/2014/05/22/thirteen-fascinating-things-i-learnt-about-conflict-resolution/

Lights in the dark - Festival launch - Massive storm

Lights in the dark

At night on the South Bank I saw a new-to-me footbridge over the Thames. It was all lit up so I walked and walked to get across it. Everywhere I looked I could see lights shining out in the very dark nights we get once summer gets underway here. It was balmy and sultry with a nice bit of breeze too. Perfect. There is something special about being mid-river, looking out to the city. The water always seems dangerous and fast flowing right down below, a silent counter-balance to the liveliness and chatter.

My feet couldn't take the hard pavements, so I got a taxi after the Houses of Parliament and was able to hear about the new circular tower which has been built seemingly above the buildings at the end of my street. In fact it is on the other side of the river. It had a golden layer near the top, but the taxi driver didn't know whether it was a restaurant. So there's a place to visit next time I am home.

Festival Launch

The Festival launch was a surprise. Normally I go with a friend to things like this, so it was a shock to be at a loose end, though I had a chat with someone before going in. The best bits were discovering new but famous poets and hearing already known-to-me poets. Even better than that was saying hi to the Prof who gave one of the lectures on the Iowa poetry class I am enjoying. As he spoke on stage I was thinking, yes that really is you! Just like in the video. 

I excelled myself at the book stall by picking up a book and saying I shouldn't, but I'm going to have a little look at this first to decide whether I was going to buy it, then I glanced to my right and there was the author. I apologised for being so crass and she laughed and signed the book before I had even paid for it. She is a hugely political force in Romania. Amazing poems and delivery. I hadn't thought I would appreciate God references, but I guess the religion I am battling against and bathed in is not as much of an option as I had imagined. 

First time

Earlier I'd said that I hoped I might bump into people I knew and might stay out for as long as I could get away with! Then I'd asked my father if there was a time I really needed to be back by so he could lock up. I have never had such a conversation with him before. He laughed and said midnight. My mother, characteristically, took this seriously and said no that was fine, just come back whenever and she'd come downstairs to open the door for me. In the old days she'd throw the keys down from their bedroom window onto the pavement! Then ply me with coffee to hear what I'd been up to... No time was too late for her.

Massive Storm

I didn't miss it completely, but only one flash woke me. There was no buffeting of the house by the wind. That is what keeps me awake out here in the country. The gusts are terrifying and all too dangerous as we have a 200? year old tree near us which may one day fall and crush two of the bedrooms to the West side of the house.

Babies, wonderfulness

I have just had an email with my first photos of my little cousin, born last week. The grandparents look so thrilled. I am bouncing around telling people, just like last time a few weeks' ago when my other new cousin was born.

Time to use my coloured ink to print off A4 sheets for my wall of photos.

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...

I knew I'd find it eventually - One of my heroes: Roger Allen

'She grabs her prey without pause, just as suckling mothers
hug their children.'

Comparing a female hunting dog and a doomed animal or bird to breastfeeding mothers and the wanting babies. No way will anyone get between one and the other. Or if they do, they are thwarting nature.

Ibn al-Mu'tazz,  on p197 of the very wonderful book by Roger Allen, The Arabic Literary Heritage, Cambridge University Press, 1988. I have borrowed it for 6 months already and am only half way through it. I may need to buy a 2nd hand copy from Amazon. It is one of those books where every paragraph is full of new information and the writing is clear and direct.

He mentions a flight he took in 1988 where his fellow passenger had a hooded falcon perched on his arm. I'd love to read more by Roger Allen, has he written a blog or memoirs? If not, why not? If you read this, please give it a go.

 Banipal Trust for Arab Literature - The Banipal Translation Prize - The 2010 Award

Prof. Roger Allen, Professor of Arabic and Comparative Literature, gives interview and book recommendations

Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture | Between words: Living languages | Fascinated by the Arab World

Notes from a Translation Masterclass with Roger Allen « Arabic Literature (in English)

Night - Phantom Noise - More

Night and Phantom Noise

The title could refer to thunderstorms or those odd noises from outside during the night. It doesn't. They are the titles of 2 books. By Elie Wiesel and Brian Turner. On WW2 and the Iraq War.

Why do I read such difficult writing? Does it help?

I pinched Night from my mother in law's bedroom, I did ask first, but it was pretty inevitable that the book would move house for a bit. Family book borrowing is close to burglary! Brian Turner's poems were just sitting there on the shelf in the Didcot Library and I recognised the name, so I broke my own rule of just wanting to borrow a book of photographs.

From Night I see that every so often the writer came across a person who was compassionate and kind. The Polish man in charge of a block, page 41. The Blockalteste who had been in the camps since 1933, page 70/71. In both cases the men are brought to life via their words of advice.

From Phantom Noise I particularly like, not the right word, but anyway, the poem At Lowe's Home Improvement Centre. 

The intro to Night is most personal and makes me want Brian Turner to have written a similar open and exploratory intro to his book. I want to know about his studies before and after his military work.

More

At the most recent workshop I went to I found myself explaining that a poem by someone isn't enough. I would prefer a poem on one side of the page, prose which is close to them speaking on the other, plus a link to a short video of their actual self speaking and moving. Then I'd be really happy.

Definitely making progress

I am so pleased when I see a glaring, huge mistake in a bit of Arabic I wrote a while ago, because it means I know a bit more. Just enough to see those errors.

Here's a bit of English. Why is it that 'glaring, huge' sounds wrong and I should really edit it to make it 'huge, glaring'? I think it is because of the vowel sounds, one way sounds so much better than the other way. English is slippery and tricky even for me, I even had to edit that phrase because it came out all wonky.

De-escalation and beautification

Since I can't de-escalate the wars around the place, I am de-escalating my battles with the physical world. I haven't broken a single thing by accident since I started holding things more carefully and gently.

The beautification has meant things like cleaning and rearranging very small parts of the house I come across.

My next task is to use these skills in conversations as they turn tricky.

My mother was an upright piano - Tania Hershman

Watch and listen to this 4 minute micro story about the writer's mother.

www.taniahershman.com

So what is right and what is wrong? Is the story true? Does that matter? How would the story be different if it were presented as a fairy story?

I see autonomous home education everywhere

Once or twice a year I have a conversation with a person who has a child, son usually, who is no longer following the expected path. I so recognise the sudden change in dynamics in the family:

There is the careful choice of words, wanting to protect the young person's dignity.

There is the clear lack of a future the parent can boast about, or rather mention to fend off assessments by curious relatives and neighbours.

There is a new living in the present, which is most disconcerting when this is not what mainstream society is about.

There is a need to really trust the child, themselves and the process, without the foggiest idea of what will happen next.

To me it is clearly the start of a time of autonomous home education. An open ended support time with lots of rethinking and relaxing, refinding interests, ranting, feeling very confused... for all members of the family. Oddly it may be about refinding the family itself, a place for having your own rituals and habits, fending off the world and others' wishes. Doing it your own way, not following an illusory perfect family life routine.

Others wouldn't use the term autonomous home education for this. It could be called a going back to basics, a time out, a pause or a time for rethinking things.

Draft post from 2/7/2013

Motherboard - Howl

Motherboard

T drove off to pick up speakers and an amp. He showed me the inside of the amp. It was so beautiful, sparkling clean and individual looking. Every mother bord I have ever seen is so artistically designed, I have seen quite a few since T started to be interested in electronics aged 6 or so.

I made happy noises, then told him to take some photos of it, he already had!

Howl

We are getting ever closer towards performance poetry now, which will mean watching videos on YouTube, but for the moment we are each still reading out the entirety of the pieces we study together. This will be the longest yet by far. I am typing here while I do the photocopying. Being a lax leader..normally I do all this straight after each Sunday evening session. I should be in the car already.

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.

Your Majesty, Your Excellency, Urgent Action

It feels pretty much automatic to be writing out my name and address for the umpteenth time on yet another set of letters for Amnesty Bahrain. For various reasons I have been quite unable to write for over 6 months, but it is good to be back.

No changes at the top I see, all the same names. I will have to ask about the price of stamps, it was 88p, but has it changed?

Do the officials get bored of the endless letters arriving each morning?

I guess I will never get a visa to go there given the letters I write, so my one visit pre-children may well have been it. The airport was very luxurious, uncrowded and pleasantly cool in the middle of the night, changing planes on the way to Singapore. I had a long skirt on and long sleeves. I had studiously avoided talking to my male neighbour on the plane, trying not to be a loose western woman, but the coffee and food was lovely. I wonder which airline it was?

Between a film and a poetry workshop..

..I was able to phone my brother, father and mother. I leaned over a stone bridge in the sunshine, sat on a bench, sat on a wall, found a quiet street with another low wall to sit on. So lots f chatting and catching up until my phone ran out of power. I was probably speaking rather loudly but who cares, the traffic was doing its best to drown me out. My brother sounded as if he were underwater so w were repeating everything to eachother several times. I did say it would be better if we texted eachother.

My brother was on the Strand in London on his way to meeting a friend, my parents had just got back from a day of travel and excitement including lunch at The River Cottage. I asked my fatherctontell me exactly what they had eaten. The soup was celery with some little gooseberries included. My mother was on the sofa with her legs stretched out. I was with her when the phone died on me. I am sure she understood.

Car wash - Andrew Motion - This Room of Waiting - Milestone

Car wash

We piled into the back of T's car to help him with the process of going through the car wash for the first time. We had such a good time. Took photos, video, made a lot of noise, wondered if his aerial survived. All good.

Andrew Motion

A group of us went to sit in the front row and listen to a reading and explanation of his life. I can't put into words how seeing a person stand or sit there and speak alters the silent words on a page. Before I encountered poets reading out their own work and speaking a bit before and afterwards I had no idea about this reality which comes across so strongly.

I had been used to the facade people presented in my school, university and work life, not to mention family life until recently. It seemed to me that reality was a carefully hidden concept, to be teased out via special insights and articles in books I could never find. Now I see that reality is right there, shouting, waving its arms around. Just stop wishing things were different or should be some other way, and open your eyes.

Edinburgh/This Room of Waiting

My parents have been busy with the Queen's Garden Party at Holyrood and Gareeb Iskander, who took part in an Exiled Writers Ink reading recently in Oxford, has been busy with a book launch there too.

It is This Room of Waiting and has several reviews already. It is a bilingual edition so would be suitable for anyone studying on their own or who has a small study group to work on the Arabic together.

You can see that I am trying my best to create a study group. In my village or Didcot would be best. It hasn't come together yet, but I am always optimistic. I already have too many books to read over the summer, so I might delay getting the book until it is time to get a Christmas present for myself.

Another huge milestone

I had bought steak for supper. Since my head is not quite right I asked T if he'd be able to make some for me. He did! So he kindly brought me steak and chips, even with lettuce and a knife and fork. It was so delicious, manna from heaven. I have thanked him a couple of times, but it's not enough to explain how cared for I am.

My type of friend!

I have just had a call from a friend, unexpectedly free mid-afternoon. So I will ply her with strawberries and meringues. I will put the kettle on so it is boiling by the time she gets here. We will loll around on the sofa chatting. I have a bit of a dizzy head, but nothing that can't cope with a surprise visit.

10 - 15 = 1974 - 1979

We are doing collages of images which represent aspects of each 5 year period of our lives. Today was the third session, hence we looked at the years from 10 to 15.

I didn't aim to be comprehensive. There is only so much I can do with back copies of the National Geographic and the weekend magazines.

The bits which got missed out were:

An amazing four poster bed I made for myself using huge blue curtains and some red ones for the interior, plus furniture stacked up dangerously. That was a high point of my childhood!

Various scrapes I got into at school, I can't imagine why I didn't get caught and soundly punished. Maybe they see everything and just sigh, waiting to see if it is a phase which passes.

The beggar I asked to photograph who sat looking glamorous on a brick wall for the price of a cup of tea. I liked negotiating with total strangers even then. I insisted on taking two photos to make sure one was good.

My wanderings through the old Tate. The mercury, the mirrored cubes, the bricks, the snail, the badminton game, Hockney, Warhol blah blah blah....lots of famous stuff just littered about for free any time it was the holidays because mother was at work and we were on a very loose rein.

The garages and basements of my grandmother's block of flats, Dolphin Square, plus the pool and all the gardens.

This has distracted me from being a good mother. T had to call me from the station to get picked up. This is not the first time I have forgotten to go down there for him. 

The attic of our house, where my brother and I split up the territory easily and used to sit happily chatting next to the water tank!

The other little place we made for ourselves beside the washing machine in the kitchen, with empty film cannisters for collecting money and upturned buckets to sit on. Mine was smaller because I was older and taller, so needed more headroom.

My radio went in there too so I could listen to Nixon's resignation speech live. Goodness knows what time it was, but I was into politics at some level even then. I bet he didn't imagine a 10 year old in London listening to every word! How did I even know it was going to be broadcast?

The tents and dens we made from the poor old sun loungers. I liked my comforts so rigged up power supplies and had the radio and a light in there.

That's enough for now. I will go on for ever if I don't stop, obviously.

For everyone's inner engineer - conversation - Oxford

Here are 2 videos which my son T has just shown me:

Dyson - Air Multipliers and the blue balloon

Honda - The Cog sequence

He and I have discussed the summer, internships, travel to Scotland, money (all conversations get to money eventually), petrol, the tiring and unsuccessful trip to Henley to pick up his father this evening and a holiday invitation.

I typed out my cv this afternoon and gave it to the person I have wanted to give it to for months. So all in all a successful trip to Oxford for me this evening. Plus bumping into someone I know, who I bought a hot chocolate for. I hope it helps in some way. At least we can chat about stuff in an almost normal sort of way. He may be homeless, but I met him in better circumstances and we have mutual friends. His dog always recognises me and likes having his nose stroked.

Being gentle

For the first time in my life I deliberately handled my shopping so delicately and gently. Each item was picked up by the scanner, nothing got dropped, I found space for each one in the bags easily.

When I saw that I had missed out a bottle of milk I simply did a second buying session and paid for that too. So rushing and fighting is a waste of energy. It felt so completely different.

At home I am trying to do things gently in the kitchen. Shutting the microwave is a challenge because the door needs a slam, but maybe there is a way to do that in a more peaceful way.

 Our big front door needs a huge thump to shut it, but that could be solved by getting the carpenter round yet again. The china plates make sharp sounds when I put them away, but I can pick between a big crash and a slightly smaller crash. The aga doors are uncompromising too, but again there are different levels of metal on metal.

The biggest area for change is how I speak. The words I choose and general attitude. Just because sharp humour has been a useful tool in the past doesn't mean it has to be a way of life. Lots of skills are just that, to be used once in a while, but no more.

This might be my lesson from those unsettling pains last week.

I had to go for a walk

So off I went and found that the new wood in the village has turned into a real one without me noticing. The paths are totally covered over with leafy branches. There are birds and insects flying about. I met some neighbours of course. The 12 big stones still form a circle in the middle for the teenagers to use for late night gatherings.

On the way back a path was so overgrown with nettles and hogweed I had to walk with my arms right up in the air to avoid being stung. That's a familiar sensation from years ago, holidays in Scotland or where ever. I'd forgotten about that.

I still needed more nature, so lay gazing up at my own trees in the back garden while H bicycled around. 'Twas very heaven to be alive... Normally summer means wind and rain, but at the moment that rule is on hold.

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.

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