The objective corellative

The purpose of any writing is to affect a reader's view of the world as it is. Maybe making a judgement in the cold light of a sober morning, or using the righteous incandescence of powder and spirits at night. In the face of Gaza, Aleppo, Mariupol and any number of other mass graves with … Continue reading The objective corellative

Social Posting

I am using JetPack, the WordPress back end spun out into a useful micro and meso blogging/ social-media posting app. Now, if we could read federated (not Meta "curated") posts through a personally chosen interface I might bunny hop back into view 😉

What I need to do?

Tell myself into the story that needs to be told. About the truth of kindness in all things. But, wait. Is there also a truth of uncaring? There seem to be people who care more and care less. There are times that I care more or less. And things in all these things about which … Continue reading What I need to do?

Diaspora 101

I am a naive user of federated social media. Loved the Adobe Air Tweetdeck when Twitter's api was still open. But that is an old story. I just opened an account on the big Diaspora pod, diasp.org. I loved the idea of Diaspora Now it has to have a phone app. And Fedilab works well … Continue reading Diaspora 101

Cafe society

Breakfast at Bannisters. No greasy spoon. Stack of sweet corn fritters (a rare delicacy in Britain) on a bed of baby spinach, no less, served with home made tomato chutney. But the price was nuts. Not unusually so. Just the daily, where cod and chips is now £12. My breakfast with coffee was most of … Continue reading Cafe society

Economic productivity

I have been thinking about "economic productivity". Since retiring (at 67), on a personal level and now on a socio-economic level. It is all over the news. "We must get Britain back to work..." But why? It appears that "economic productivity" has come to mean: working to enrich... who? The already wealthy? If that is … Continue reading Economic productivity

Setting off again: telling stories for love

I do departures. In about six weeks I will set off on a ten-day wilderness (well, Dartmoor) fast, "The Mead of Poetry", led by Tom Hirons and Rozalie (Rozi) Hilton. Before this I have preparation tasks: to complete a day-walk with only water and to write my life story, confidentially. The setting off is formal, … Continue reading Setting off again: telling stories for love

Hard work. Close reading. In translation.

What is translation in poetry? Some poets seem quite translatable: Pablo Neruda; Valérie Rouzeau? I don't know. Hard work. Close reading. In translation. Valérie Rouzeau, Pas Revoir (2003), translated by Susan Wicks as Cold Spring in Winter (2009). With an Introduction by Stephen Romer. Arc Publications, Todmorten, UK, 2009. The poem, or collection of poems … Continue reading Hard work. Close reading. In translation.

Small cosmos: virtual hypertext

The magic in poetry is that not only is a poem LIKE a cosmos, it can BE, maybe simply, IS a cosmos of reader, hearer, speaker, writer, words, sounds, spaces, histories, intentions, interpretations, meanings, etc. Every poem carries its shadow and illuminates third spaces. There is a lot of dark matter under and behind and dark energy throughout.

It is about working in poetry

Mick Heron refers to "...anything for a sausage roll poets." A nod to (or at) the futile? Of course, he is right. But, I can make my own sausage rolls and do not need to compete with BAe or BP for a seriously-beyond-sausage-roll piece of the public purse to grift my my writing. So it … Continue reading It is about working in poetry