As you may have noticed, I've put up the list of poetry courses for next term at CPIT. There are three on offer, and the blurbs are below. Clicking on this link will take you to the downloadable enrollment form. If you are interested in attending one, PLEASE don't leave it until the last minute to enroll. …
When Teaching Goes ______ (it goes, it goes, it just goes?)
That's two sessions of 2nd-term Reading for Writing. An good group, and interesting – four of the eight present this time were persons of the male persuasion, which is something of a record. I'm not going to draw any conclusions about the effect of the course subtitle (‘American Women’), but … The frustrating thing is …
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Subverting Clichés – an axe to grind
One of the exercises I gave my CPIT students recently was the classic "reanimating clichés" (i.e. take a cliché and treat it as though literally true. Explore it. Give it life again). I've always enjoyed it, and have managed to get a couple of perfectly acceptable poems from it in the past. One (light) poem …
students and Paul Muldoon’s “Quoof”
The session before last, I showed my CPIT students a range of different modern sonnets, ending with the least typical of all, Paul Muldoon's Quoof. It caused quite a lot of discussion. Among other things, why a poet would risk such an out-there image as my hand on her breast like the smouldering one-off spoor …
Teaching, and why it’s good for you
I have a lot of respect for good teachers. For one thing, I come from a family of them. A good teacher can change a student's life – give them that little push they need to really grow into their potential. Mind you, a bad teacher can destroy potential just as easily. I had both …
