ModPo update for Thursday of week 4 (October 3, 2019)

Here we are—Thursday of week 4 of ModPo 2019. Have you had a chance to watch Bob Perelman’s brilliant explanation of Gertrude Stein’s occasional use of the continuous present tense? No? Well, here is the link (from our main syllabus): LINK TO VIDEO. The video is just a little longer than a minute, and will really help you understand one of Stein’s modes. And I think will inspire you to read more Stein in the last few days of the week. (Bob, of course, re-appears as one of our poets in week 8.)

The recording of last night’s webcast can be viewed HERE. (Honoring the Baroness and her dozen cocktails, and Gertrude’s salon at home where the wine flowed, we decide to open a bottle of Argentine Malbec. We toasted each other and you, as we talked about some of the most playful and pleasurable—and strangest—poetry in the course.)

If you intend to post an essay in response to essay assignment #2, please do so soon—ideally by Sunday. On Sunday we will begin to review and comment on essays that have been posted.

Here at the Writers House in Philly I met a wonderful ModPo’er today. We hadn’t met. She told me that she loves the course. (Nice!) I asked her if she was able to keep up. She said no, and then I realize she assumed that in order to participate everyone has to read every poem and watch every video before moving on to the next week/chapter. I was happy to explain to her that it’s better to keep up roughly week by week than to fall behind because you wanted to read every poem and watch every video. Now she’s moving forward, picking and choosing, and will join us in week 5 starting on Sunday. She knows that she can come back and finish the main syllabus any time after our ten weeks are done in mid-November.