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...

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.