ModPo update for Saturday of week 3 (9-28-2019)

Hello and happy Saturday! A lovely day here in Manhattan, NY, USA.

Yes, it’s Saturday of week 3 of ModPo 2019—which is to say, the final day of our collaborative exploration of the rise of poetic modernism through imagism.

Tomorrow we move into week 4—a week in which we will explore the rise of modernism through Gertrude Stein (and also a few other avant-garde poets).

Of course it’s really, truly OKAY if you are still reading poems and watching videos in week 3, or, for that matter, in weeks 1 and 2. ModPo is open all year, and ongoing, so we urge you to move forward with us to week 4 even if it means going back to earlier weeks later.

We are still reviewing and commenting on each other’s Dickinson essays—essays posted in response to assignment #1. I believe we have just about reached our goal of crowdsourced, community response: together we have provided every essayist with at least four comments! Please look once more at the essays and find one that could use another comment; then read it and respond! I can assure you that those ModPo’ers who posted essays appreciate EVERY response they receive.

HERE is an essay that could use a few more comments.

I want to thank the extraordinary Community TAs (CTAs) who have written many comments on the essays!

I’ll be back tomorrow to talk a bit more about week 4. Meantime, please listen to my audio introduction to week 4. I think it will set you up well for the wild week ahead.

We will be in Boston hosting ModPo gatherings on Thursday, October 10 (at MIT), and Saturday, October 12 (at Lisa New’s home)—in the evenings. And we will be in New York City on Wednesday, October 30th, to convene our weekly webcast at the Morgan Library. Please join us if you can. Send an RSVP to us at modpo@writing.upenn.edu.

Now it’s time for me to go for a run along the lordly Hudson River here in the glorious Saturday sun. Anyone want to join me? (I don’t run very fast.)