Archive - Apr 7, 2016

#NaPoWriMo Further Reflections

It is Thursday, April 7th. I continue on pace for writing a poem a day in April. I’m a few posts behind averaging a post a day for the year. Last night I was out late and didn’t get a chance to post yesterday’s poem until this morning, and I may come back to it and work on it more later.

I have today’s poem mostly composed. I just need to do some editing, but I thought I’d stop to write some reflections this evening and post the today’s poem tomorrow morning.

My computer was acting up today. In part, I believe, because I had too many windows open. I close the windows, saving the links to various pages I had open, and some of them seem to fit together.

MOOCs: There are two MOOCs that I’m looking at participating in. One is MODERN GENIUS: ART AND CULTURE IN THE 19TH CENTURY. I believe it is set up using the Kannu learning management system. It is a good chance for me to see how that system works. The course already started, so I have to decide if I want to spend time on it and maybe try to catch up.

The other MOOC, which is starting tomorrow, is Poetry in America: Modernism. I’ve participated in a few of the other classes in this series, sometimes having time to complete them, other times not.

During my devotions, I ended up on John Donne’s page, particularly reading Annunciation. This led me to search Librivox to wee what is available. I found
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
. I am listening to this in the car during my commute.

I also watched a little of Why is modern poetry difficult? Talk by Professor Geoff Ward.

All of this links together with an article that caught my attention today, Study: Poor Writing Skills Are Costing Businesses Billions. It pointed to the study, Are They Really Ready To Work?

Kim and Fiona are elsewhere, so I have a quiet evening at home. I’ll work a little more on today’s poem, maybe read a little more online, and then head off to bed soon.

(Categories: )

#NaPoWriMo 6: Digital Diabetes

She had developed a case of digital diabetes;
too many sweets online
and not enough meet, not enough substance.
Sure, there a little spice in her diet
the occasional political disagreement,
but she had already unfriended
most of the people who disagreed with her
except for those relatives she couldn’t unfriend
and had to just ignore.

Her digital footprint was virtually indistinguishable,
for any twenty first century teen popstar,
like the characters in sitcom
about teenage life
aimed at preteens
or in the carefully constructed
personae
of teen aged music idols.

It was hard to differentiate between her
and everyone else
like her
who was suffering
from digital diabetes.

(Categories: )