11 Comments
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JLM Morton's avatar

I am glad to meet someone who reads poetry collections just as I do - backwards and inside out! And yes agree on Up Late, it's an extraordinary collection.

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Andrea Turner's avatar

Thanks John, I just read the poem Up Late through your link, what an astonishing piece of writing, gripping and tender, moving from that strange detachment of witnessing, that creates space for the smallest observations to speak with significance. The kind of poem that sends me outside to feel the air move. And your fab essay. Great to read your process and thoughts.

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Lindsay McLeod Espinoza's avatar

Thank you, glad to know of scattered attention as a feature that can lead to thriving. I’d join you next week but time difference and health insist on daytime activity for now.

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North Sea Poets's avatar

Hi Lindsay, we’ll be recording the workshop (and will have slides available) so you could buy a ticket and watch the session back when you’re feeling up to it!

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Lindsay McLeod Espinoza's avatar

Great, signed up, thanks!

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Juliet Robertson's avatar

This has worked well for me. I live a chaotic life owing to my health as well. But it enables me to catch the webinar - especially the endings as 2hrs is a lot for me. Each one I have attended has been very good. I'm on John's one in mid July.

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North Sea Poets's avatar

See you then Juliet!

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Lesley Harrison's avatar

Have now ordered 'Up Late', and also rethought my holiday reading.

These essays are so good.

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Michael Fox's avatar

Thank you - absolutely fascinating! I know what you mean about longer poems - it’s the ones where the poet goes all Greek on us that bring out the butterfly in my mind…

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Brian Culhane's avatar

I enjoyed this essay as it meandered gracefully among related subjects. The mention of Solomon Shereshevsky whose amazing memory proved a burden put me in mind of Borges’s “Funes, the Memorious.”

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More Than Poetry's avatar

I appreciate this substack so much! As an ADHD poet, I struggle so much with reading longer poems. It’s why I try to ‘Frost’ my poems. Tell a story. So, even if someone doesn’t get the metaphor or deeper meaning, they walk away with a story in edible bites.

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