First, the anthology: Yes indeedy, the anthology of poems from ten-years-worth of my poetry classes is finally here. Isn‘t it lovely? The cover was designed by Kate Rennie, who is also one of the (37!) contributors. We’re having the official launch at Tūranga, 5.30pm to 7.30pm on the evening of Thursday September 24th and will be …
NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 23
Below is a block of text, purloined from Wordsworth (whose deathiversary today is), and warped through multiple retranslations into a variety of languages and then back into English. Ponder the weirdness of it, and then use it to leap off into a new poem of your own. You aren’t trying to restore the original – …
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NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 3
Day three: hanging in there? Today’s exercise is a classic: the ode. A public poem in praise of something or someone. And because they don’t get celebrated anywhere near enough, your subject should be one of those people toiling away to keep us all going during this lockdown and crisis – supermarket workers, nurses, cleaners, …
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NaPoWriMo Quarantine Edition – Exercise 2
Over the Easter/Passover break in 2015, a group of enterprising senior citizens made a little after-hours excursion to the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company … yes, the infamous Hatton Garden Heist was five years ago today. As a tip of the hat, your task is to write a poem about stealing something, beginning your poem …
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Poetry Class versus The Virus
Well that’s another swathe of plans sent down the porcelain gullet! Here I was, one class down, the second not due to be taught until May (leaving a comfortable amount of time to do some research, some gentle and leisurely reading, and maybe even some actual writing of my own), being very good and diligent …
A Dark Feathered Art 