John Looker

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#southword #poetry

Poem by Fanny Howe 'I won't be able to write from the grave'

This is essentially one extended sentence. After the colon it opens into a list, an inventory of affection that feels spiritual in tone

It directly contradicts the Romantic idea of poetic immortality

I also love short northern nights, when darkness never fully settles

#poetry
#poemoftheday

Yes, 7 beautiful lines from Fanny Howe. Her penultimate line is a lovely change of direction but it’s her final line that sings: the ‘short northern nights’? As there’s a fireplace in the poem this could be winter when nights are very long – they just seem too short if you’re in bed with a friend.

Lineation Survey This survey is designed to understand writers’ attitudes about and use of lineation. Survey responses are anonymous unless you provide contact information at the end . You are not required to answer a...

Poets and poetry lovers, do you have a few minutes to complete a survey on line breaks? It’s part of a research project led by one of my graduate students. Please feel free to share. Thanks for considering.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Poem by Marianne Moore 'Poetry'

Marianne Moore's ultimate lesson in redrafting. Several versions published over 50 years. The final cutting the original 31 lines to 3.

I think, rather than lines lost or meaning changed, they all speak to each other.

The 3 line version, though, is my favourite.

#poetry
#poemoftheday
#amediting

I was reading Marianne Moore’s poetry again myself recently. These 3 lines are so succinct they almost function as an Executive Summary to her original poem. I like them, but I miss the toads.

Time I reread them!

I find this photo (from the other side of the world from me) just lifts the spirits! It’s the sense of peace or harmony, I suspect.

In today’s post

Who’s averse to a bit of satirical verse?

“They’d been at it since eight
But they could not agree
And their overalls told of the long hours of debate.”

Here’s the full poem again:

#poem #poetry #AI

The text of the full poem: The Car and the Philosophers It was a long hot day and three philosophers emerged from the workshop for a cool beer in the shade. Three moral philosophers: the deontologist, the consequentialist and the modern virtue ethicist. They'd been at it since eight but they could not agree and their overalls told of the long hours of debate. (The driverless car was raised and gripped like a patient undergoing surgery, its electronic nervous system comprehensively stripped. There were questions one should not duck: the baby in the stroller or the elderly group on the curb, or straight in the path of the oncoming truck?) We’ve done all we promised said the first, but so much unresolved said the second, while the third considered at least they had earned their thirst. The owner could be back at six; the police might return in the morning. They could do no more; the car remained unfixed.

There’s something about driverless cars that really bothers me. Who decides what they should do in an emergency?

This thought took form in a poem.

“It was a long hot day
And three philosophers emerged from the workshop
For a cool beer in the shade.”

Here’s the full poem:

#poem #AI

It's formidable, I agree: Auden at his most skilful and powerful. A poem for our appalling times.

LS Lowry in his own words — ‘Painting is like a disease. You can’t stop’ Fifty years after his death, a documentary reveals hours of never-before-heard interviews with the artist that were left for years in an attic

LS Lowry in his own words — ‘Painting is like a disease. You can’t stop’

www.thetimes.com/article/bd15...

Interesting thread showing how an AI search assistant makes things up.
The final post reveals the underlying problem: its programming is biased towards seeming to be helpful & conclusive.
And because it can’t see source videos it understands them only through the text of comments.

Poem “Because You Asked about the Line Between Poetry and Prose” by Howard Nemerov

This poem by Howard Nemerov poses a question often asked and answers it by allowing form and imagery to make the case

That there is an indistinguishable point when one becomes the other

What is clear though is he believes, when defined, poetry flies and prose falls

#poetry
#poemoftheday

They seem to be everywhere!

#poetry #haiku #snowdrops

There's a Grim New Expression: "AI;DR" The slang is a sign of how overrun the internet is with AI slop — and how the real humans using it are fed up.

AI;DR = books that are AI slop are being tagged AI;Don’t Read. It’s trending and has been noted already on BlueSky. But in case you haven’t seen it. futurism.com/artificial-i... #Author #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #BlueSky #BookSky #WritersNetwork #AI #AI;DR #IndieAuthor #SelfPublished

Bizarre!

My photo. Spezia, Liguria

How long will we stay, asks the wind, circling the striped carousel by the winter sea. The horses rear at nothing, bridles stiff with salt. Empty chairs face the tide like patient ghosts. Even the gulls keep their distance. The ticket booth blinks once, then forgets us.

#FromOneLine 406

Oh those sky-taps (great metaphor!). And you can never find a plumber when you need one.

Book cover: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder

I’m rereading. The writing is absolutely exquisite: concise, witty, rich.

This for example about the Viceroy of Peru:

“… a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue”

#books #literature

Pinks #40: How It Feels Rubbing Down a Gravestone Personal insights into a poetic masterpiece

I wrote about Basil Bunting’s modernist masterpiece, Briggflatts — published 60 years ago this month — and what I learned from the poet’s own comments on his poem

Thank you for reposting, Bennison Books.

White snowdrops growing through a bed of brown beech leaves.

It’s that time of year again, thank heavens:

Suddenly, snowdrops.
They bring news, intelligence,
of plans being made.

#poems #haiku #photos #snowdrops

Thank you for this. Looking at poems you have posted, I can see that how poetry falls on the ear is important to us both.

Happy Valentines to you all. What better way to celebrate than with a Cat Book out now?

www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=the+cat+...

Huge thanks to Rough Diamond and Charlotte. Amazing work and so many talented writers

I include my poem as it's available in the sample on amazon:

#roughdiamond #catpoetry

The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported

SOS save the #bbcworldservice

‘Perhaps Britain’s greatest gift to the world”in the 20th century’: Kofi Annan.

Money runs out in 7 weeks. No plan.

Pls lobby YvetteCooperMP Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer John Healey MP

Please Email:

fcdo.correspondence@fcdo.gov.uk

enquiries@dcms.gov.uk

A poem that repays a slow read.

A rather shy winter sun playing hide and seek behind the clouds. Silhouette of trees in the foreground.

Stop toying with my affections and just come out. Day 43. 🥾😪

Libre de penser par soi même. Otium pour tous

Je vous laisse réfléchir là-dessus