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
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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy
It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy
Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left
Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy
Human Rights in Ireland >>
Wanted: Climate Researcher to Write Extreme Weather Just-So Stories to Serve Up to Credulous Media Wed Jul 24, 2024 07:00 | Chris Morrison
If you wondered where the MSM get all their lurid stories attributing 'extreme weather' to climate change, look no further than a new job ad for a "researcher" focused on creating alarmist propaganda, says Chris Morrison.
The post Wanted: Climate Researcher to Write Extreme Weather Just-So Stories to Serve Up to Credulous Media appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Wed Jul 24, 2024 01:01 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Porsche Scraps Electric Car Targets as Demand Slumps Tue Jul 23, 2024 19:43 | Will Jones
Porsche has scrapped its sales targets for EVs amid a slump in demand. A previous goal of 80% by 2030 has been watered down and the company now says sales will depend on uptake and how the technology develops.
The post Porsche Scraps Electric Car Targets as Demand Slumps appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
?Mission-Driven? Government is the Antithesis of Liberty Tue Jul 23, 2024 17:30 | Dr David McGrogan
Labour is "mission-driven", says Keir Starmer. But the last thing anyone should want is a Government with a mission, says David McGrogan. That's because a Government with a mission needs conscripts. That's you and me.
The post “Mission-Driven” Government is the Antithesis of Liberty appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints Tue Jul 23, 2024 15:30 | Dr Gary Sidley
A victory in the mask wars! Two hospital providers that brought back mask mandates have backtracked and scrapped them following complaints from Daily Sceptic readers and Smile Free supporters.
The post Victory! Hospitals That Brought Back Mask Mandates Backtrack After Complaints 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
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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,.