h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi! Rather than continuing our 'private' conversation on L-squared I thought I'd leave you a message here.

I just Googled 'online poetry workshops' and got some interesting hits. Quite a few poets offering critiques etc., some on a fee basis but also one or two actual online workshops that could be of value. Think I might 'lurk' on some to see what sort of atmosphere there is and whether it's really helpful. See what you think and then we could maybe touch base again.

el D

Oh, and while it's in my head, I would encourage you to visit the poems of Pablo Neruda at:

http://www.poemhunter.com/pablo-neruda/poems/

Maybe you're already familiar with his work; I discovered him fairly recently and I'm so glad I did.

Thanks for that, el D. I must confess my interest in, and knowledge of poetry is largely historical - I'm more of a song and dance man, really. I'm vaguely acquainted with Pablo Neruda, and have come across one or two of his poems, but I'm not very familiar with his work. I had a quick look on poemhunter, and he looks worth following up, although I generally prefer - and am probably over fond of - poems that rhyme (having said that, I do like the poetry of R S Thomas).

Perhaps you'd be interested in sharing some poems with us on the poetry association thread on the Radio 4 Mornington Crescent message board? In its current manifestation, it's called 'Poet Tree' - for some strange reason, threads there are limited to about 500 posts. We could do with some new contributors. The idea is that you post quotes from poems you know, using the last word of the previous quote as a link (although I'm a bit naughty and sometimes quote myself).

Hi!
Since we're confessing, here's mine:
I visited the Poet Tree and decided to make a contribution but misread the thread and replied to the wrong post! I don't suppose for a minute that I'm the first to do that, however, as a new user of that message board I have to wait for the post to be moderated so it will appear way out of context, some time in the future. For the same reason I can't even post an apology in the thread. Great! Maybe you could keep an eye open for it to appear and put in a word for me with the regulars.

I don't know how many postings one has to make before becoming "a trusty" but it seems inevitable to me that newbies will be all out of sync until that happens. N'est-ce pas?

Mmmm... right, slight update to that! Seems like I'm slowly learning about this message board. My post got on (out of sync of course but that was my own fault) but I now find that the board closes at midnight so I can't follow on for myself. Bear with me, I'll get there!

Sorry, el D, I didn't think to forewarn you about the idiosyncracies and idiocies of the MC message boards. You've encountered one of them straight away, viz. the mods' delay on new posters. I'm not sure how many posts you have to make before becoming 'a trusty': half a dozen or so, I suspect, though it may be a few more. It's very irritating for all concerned when posts appear out of sync.

The quickest way round it, if you can be bothered, is to post on those threads where synchronization is not important, of which there are many (such as the stand alone limerick thread, the old jokes home, limericks for us lot, a couple of what the papers say threads) or on the dormant threads, of which there are even more, until such time as your postings appear without delay.

Other annoying features of moderation are that you can only make one post every three minutes (this is known as the BTMR, or bloody three minute rule) and that the boards are only open from 9am (10am at w/e) until midnight - which prevented me from putting in a word for you tonight when your post appeared. As it happened, your post was followed by one from Mathos-le-Rhymer, an infrequent visitor who invariably makes completely random contributions, so yours didn't seem so out of place. However, I will put in a word for you tomorrow, although it might not be until the evening.

Thanks for the tips. I'll see what I can do. I guess I've just got into the habit of going as I please on hootoo!

Are you as bad as me, won't go to bed at night, or are you somewhere where it's not night?

Something like that: won't go to bed at night, can't get up in the morning. But I have to be up and about in 5 hours, so I'm going...any minute now.

G'night.

Me too!

.................................Zzzzzzzzzzz

Hmm, that's interesting. My response to 31 on Poet Tree should have preceded my "Heck we've done it again" but seems to have disappeared into the BBC black hole. Oh well, never mind.

Glad you explained that. I did wonder, since msg 33 didn't make much sense otherwise. What did you try and post?

It was about the 3 wise men but I've forgotten what now!

Hi, el D.

I assume your question on the Poet Tree thread concerned how to highlight words in blue. We do it by putting http:// immediately before the word we want to highlight, as if we were creating a web link. It's somewhat frowned upon by the mods, which is why I'm telling you here rather than on the MC board.

Ah right. That explains why, looking at the page source, the correct html code appears but entering it in the text just displays it as written. What you're doing is making the page think it's a weblink. Thanks for that W4T.

That was rather sneaky, el D; creeping up on the pome thread and making a post just before curfew, leaving no-one enough time to make a considered response. There wasn't even time to observe that I hope this foolish game isn't tearing you apart.

How many versions of The Minstrel Boy do you suppose there are? I googled Polly's brave wording and got about 100 hits, but my pure version got over 1,000. As the irascible Stout-Cortez would say - rum, eh?

Tee-hee

Curiouser and curiouser I say!

Just been having a look at the Bad Poetry thread - even made a posting. It seems to have revived since I first looked in on it quite a long time ago. Very busy, though, and could be a great time-waster, so I should probably avoid it: I already waste far too much time on BBC boards. I think the New Poetry Game is more suitable for me, as it is, perforce, a more slow-moving thread - I think it had been dormant for over a month before I made my first post, though it has been more active since. PBS made a good contribution yesterday, as is his wont. Do you ever look in?

BTW, who is Amelia T? your female side?

Hi! Yes I noticed you'd paid a visit to Bad Poetry, thanks for the contribution. As you'll have gathered the verses there vary from the truly dreadful to the pretty-good-actually with all shades of grey in between. You're quite right of course, it's a real time-consumer and is often so active it resembles a chat-room more than a message board. The camaraderie is usually good though and it can be a lot of fun. I think there are one or two of us who aspire to the occasional more serious effort and we tend to hold intermittent 'private' conversations off-stage as it were.

And Amelia T? Well she first appeared some time back as a bit fun. Many of the contributors have at least one nom-de-plume and I've used a couple myself. Amelia seems to have attracted a following however and I tend now to post the slightly better (I hope!) offerings in her name. My feminine side? Well I suppose she might be. That would make sense as most of what 'she' writes could be construed as coming from there.

I'm not sure what you're calling the 'New Poetry Game' and I couldn't locate anything by that name on R4. Perhaps you could post me a link.

Cheers,
el D

Hi, el D. What I'm calling the 'New Poetry Game' is something called 'New Poetry Game'. It's another of Jab's and you can go directly to it from Bad Poetry, via a link at the top right of the page. The set-up is that each poster nominates the subject for the next post. Seems quite fun to me.

BTW, have you done any lurking on poetry workshops yet? And were you inspired to investigate Jonathan Robin? Must admit I'd never heard of him until yesterday, when I googled lewis carroll + repair. And what a hit that was!

Cheers,

Ah, got you! Yes that is fun - and I've had a go.

I have yet to get down to some serious lurking. Clearly too much time spent in frivolity!