Archived Blogs

Imagined Elsewhere

I used this blog in 2013/14 to store notes, observations and research as I worked towards completing an M.A. in the humanities. Most of the material is inconsequential, however the close reading of Wordsworth's Duddon Sonnets may be of some use to people interested in sonnets, or in Wordsworth's later poetry. The comparison between Panofsky's Perspective as Symbolic Form from the 1920s with Barthes reflections on photography in Camera Lucida (1980) contains some useful reflections on the way the West's predeliction for Euclidian geometry defines and limits our 'window on the world'. 

Habitually Formed

The first post back in December 2012 outlines how my earliest attempt at blogging came about - 

I've been writing poetry for almost 43 years. Sporadically and in an amateurish fashion for 30 of them; for the last 12 years, in cahoots with fellow cyberpals, regularly, seriously, scoring a few modest successes on the way. All of this has been achieved under pressure of time, in odd moments, amongst the chaos of a busy working life and the absorptions of a delightful family life. Consequently my work is scattered randomly across various computers, not properly proofread and exists in multiple versions on various on-line poetry workshop archives. 

With redundancy looming, creating the prospect of having some time to myself, I feel it's time to get myself sorted out. Maybe I have enough decent material to form the basis of a first collection so part of the idea behind the blog is to establish definitive versions of everything I've written to date, polished up for publication. 

The other issue for me is I feel at some sort of crossroads writing wise. I've explored formal verse mainly; rubbed shoulder with the tribal elders of New Formalism; hung out on its backstreets with their baby boomer overgrown boho wannabees - maybe it's time for a change. So, I thought it may be useful to reflect a bit on how each of my poems came to be, what I learned when writing them, what worked and what bombed. Maybe that way I'll work out - where next?

The blog contains some poems that are unpublished. Editors are becoming increasingly sniffy about pre-publication in web environments including open access blogs and Facebook. Consequently I have limited access to the blog to specific readers. If you would like access email me at pete.turpie@gmail.com and I will add you to the list.