The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire
In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire
UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović
US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire
Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović
Anti-Empire >>
A bird's eye view of the vineyard
Alternative Copy of thesaker.is site is available Thu May 25, 2023 14:38 | Ice-Saker-V6bKu3nz
Alternative site: https://thesaker.si/saker-a... Site was created using the downloads provided Regards Herb
The Saker blog is now frozen Tue Feb 28, 2023 23:55 | The Saker
Dear friends As I have previously announced, we are now “freezing” the blog. We are also making archives of the blog available for free download in various formats (see below).
What do you make of the Russia and China Partnership? Tue Feb 28, 2023 16:26 | The Saker
by Mr. Allen for the Saker blog Over the last few years, we hear leaders from both Russia and China pronouncing that they have formed a relationship where there are
Moveable Feast Cafe 2023/02/27 ? Open Thread Mon Feb 27, 2023 19:00 | cafe-uploader
2023/02/27 19:00:02Welcome to the ‘Moveable Feast Cafe’. The ‘Moveable Feast’ is an open thread where readers can post wide ranging observations, articles, rants, off topic and have animate discussions of
The stage is set for Hybrid World War III Mon Feb 27, 2023 15:50 | The Saker
Pepe Escobar for the Saker blog A powerful feeling rhythms your skin and drums up your soul as you?re immersed in a long walk under persistent snow flurries, pinpointed by
The Saker >>
Far-Left Group Claim Responsibility for Paris Arson Attacks Sun Jul 28, 2024 17:00 | Richard Eldred
A far-Left group has claimed responsibility for crippling Paris's rail network with arson attacks, stranding 800,000 passengers, just before the Olympic opening ceremony.
The post Far-Left Group Claim Responsibility for Paris Arson Attacks appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
DESNZ Has Net Zero Competence Sun Jul 28, 2024 15:00 | David Turver
David Turver casts a critical eye over the new crop of ministers at the Department of Energy and Net Zero, revealing a batch of public sector lifers with no commercial savvy and zero energy know-how.
The post DESNZ Has Net Zero Competence appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Hate Cleric Raises £3 Million to Create Islamic Homeland on Scottish Island Sun Jul 28, 2024 13:01 | Richard Eldred
A radical cleric has raised over £3 million to transform a remote Scottish island into a self-governing Islamic state with its own army, justice system, school and hospital.
The post Hate Cleric Raises £3 Million to Create Islamic Homeland on Scottish Island appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Why I Fear What Labour Will Do to the Education System Sun Jul 28, 2024 11:00 | Stephen Curran
We are facing a radical agenda set by the progressive wing of the educational establishment, says Dr Stephen Curran. We should build on the past 14 years' foundation, not tear it down.
The post Why I Fear What Labour Will Do to the Education System appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Labour Has Just Betrayed a Generation of Young People Sun Jul 28, 2024 09:00 | Richard Eldred
By dropping the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, the Education Secretary has declared war on the culture of free speech on campus. The fight-back starts here, says Claire Fox in the Telegraph.
The post Labour Has Just Betrayed a Generation of Young People appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en
Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en
Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en
Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en
Voltaire Network >>
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3I read Faber's notice of this some weeks ago and it struck me as just the sort of thing that will suck in people bedazzled by the false claim that anyone can be a poet. Faber are simply throwing high-profile names into the advertising mix. This course is not only costly, but claims in its title that at the end participants will have poems worth publishing in a collection. That's one hell of a claim to make - so let's hope no disappointed participant comes back at Faber when their poems are rejected by a publisher. This isn't the Faber of T.S.Eliot, of course, merely a haggard ghost from better days. They're trading on their name, naturally; but they are not who they once were. No writers' course can produce a poet, no matter who organises it. But not only Faber and Faber, who at least should know better, have presented that notion as valid.
The poet Brendan Kennelly has given poetry reading and writing classes to prisoners in Mountjoy jail. For institutionalised people poetry can be a welcome therapy that enables them to deal with traumatic aspects of their lives and to discover hidden potential. Painting classes for convalescents in hospitals has had similar happy results, even if the technical standards never come to the level of a Manet or a Picasso. Some years back somebody (Kennelly maybe?) edited and published a collection of prisoners' poetry, the profits being donated to a charitable cause. Whether such poetry shows literary promise or not it enhances the lives of those concerned and builds bridges between prisoners and the general public unaware of what the daily banality of prison life tends to be.
The Faber enterprise is, as stated, a commercial and not necessarily literary promotion and pales in comparison with the sincerity of the Mountjoy project. We are not all poets just waiting to have our poetic floodgates opened by workshop tutors or literary competition. Many of us, however, have the capability to receive help from dedicated tutors to read and appreciate the musical notes and images and distilled life insights and experiences contained in many well-honed poems.
And what is good poetry? It's a matter of personal taste acquired over years of sensitive and directed reading. Many noted living poets would acknowledge that poetry which lasts the test of time consists of ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration. This simply means that when you have got that first exciting first draft scribbled down on sheets of lined paper you must come back to it in succeeding days and redraft, redraft and redraft. And redraft again until you think the final version leaps up at your from the pages.
It's sometimes hard to avoid the feeling that literary competitions are a sign of desperation, a way of enticing people to like the organisation by having an apple held out in front of them. A cult of winning competitions has sprung up; but there are so many compettions that their worth, surely, is highly devalued by now. Workshops that do not criticise and criticise fairly but without restraint are few and far between, chiefly because they too can become a love-in of sorts,.