looking for guinea pigs

True, the small furry rodent in the picture is a squirrel, not a guinea pig, but surely that further justifies the post title, which says I’m looking for guinea pigs.

I need them because I’ve just published an online video course – The Essential Poet’s Toolbox for Readers and Writers – on Udemy and I need some students. (If you don’t know about Udemy, it’s got lots of interesting courses in all sorts of areas from lifestyle to business to technical, some free, some not. You need to create a user account, but once you’ve signed up for a course you have access to the content for ever without paying any more.)

The Essential Poet’s Toolbox for Readers and Writers takes a non-technical look at modern poetry, grouping the tools into five main areas: metre, form, rhyme, layout, and sound. It’s gone on sale at £35 (for 2.5 hours of video lessons) but I’m giving away discount coupons.
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less and more

As promised last weekend, it’s giveaway time again.

Today (July 2nd) until Wednesday (July 6th) two of my non-fiction books – A Poet’s Dozen and Writing in circles. A writers’ group handbook – are free to download from Amazon.

Tomorrow only – Sunday July 3rd – Poems from the pueblo. Haiku and assorted fragments – will also be available as a free download.
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six sonnets

love-in-a-mist flower

For reasons not relevant here, I have been reading the sonnets of Shakespeare.

Of course, someone who claims an interest in poetry probably shouldn’t need a particular reason to read poetry, but I’m afraid I do find “the sonnets” uphill work – not all sonnets, but Shakespeare’s in particular.
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survival

Pentaglottis sempervirens

Sometimes, there’s an idea that just never gels satisfactorily into a poem and the only thing to do is forget it and move on.
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pale fanfare

Yesterday’s poetry including the words

The silent fanfare of the moon
scatters the clouds.

so let’s start today with a pale fanfare of daffodil trumpets.

daffodils
I guess even such a pastel flourish should be heralding something, so I’ll use them to announce my latest book.
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