A super-quick post to say that I’m enjoying this course, How To Make A Poem, provided by the Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University via FutureLearn.
Helen Mort, Michael Symmons Roberts and Martin Kratz are the main educators – they feature in videos and in written materials. Here is some blurb from the site about what the three week course is about:
Discover the power of poetry, and learn to write your own
This course explores what inspires poetry, how we write poems and how to tell when your poem is finished.
Whether you’ve never written a poem before, or you‘ve been secretly writing away for some years, this course provides a positive environment in which to begin writing and to share your work with others.
The course follows the story of a poem from start to end, guiding you through the process of writing your own work step by step.
To help us, we will be hearing from poets across world and throughout history, learning from the advice they have given others.
I’m always open to learning and new ideas and I have some free time at the moment (I’m on Half-Term and I’ve almost signed off on my book!) so I’m well-placed to engage with a course like this. It’s aimed at people of all abilities, including complete beginners. It’s a free course (all materials available online for five weeks – if you want to have longer access to materials, you can pay £42 for an upgrade).
I thought it was worth a mention for those of you interested in this kind of thing.
Josephine Corcoran 
Sounds very interesting.
Is there one session on How do you know if it is a poem? That one always gets me; as yet no one has been able to answer.
I did my Writing MA there, under Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy.
Enjoy.
I found the ones who got most from the course are the ones that hustled for everything they needed. It makes you a nuisance, but it makes you primed and ready.
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Hi Michael, We haven’t reached “How do you know if it’s a poem” yet! I know what you mean, I struggle with that. So far, we’ve looked at found poetry, the cento, and we’re pooling our resources to expand our reading. You could probably fast forward to the bits you’re particularly interested in. I really love good free resources so I wanted to share this discovery. No hustling done yet…. 🙂
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Josephine, many thanks for the heads-up on this one; I’ll be checking it out 🙂 x
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I’m enjoying it, Jayne. You work at your own level and it’s short enough to give yourself a quick burst of inspiration. I rather like the FutureLearn interface, as well – it’s the first one of theirs I’ve signed up for. 🙂 x
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Interesting! Do you know whether they repeat courses? I’m asking for a couple of friends who are total beginners and I think they would need to be in it from the start, to feel confident. Different for you!
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Hi Jinny – it has literally just started (on Monday). It is only a three week course so all of the first week materials are up now. It isn’t too late to join – this isn’t like a face-to-face course, students work at their own pace. I have no idea if they will repeat the course. 🙂
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[…] I have no experience of this course. It does, however sound interesting and its free, https://josephinecorcoran.org/2018/05/29/how-to-make-a-poem-free-online-course/ […]
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Thankyou, Josephine. There is always more to learn. I have signed up to the free course.
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Great, I completely agree and I hope you enjoy the course, Paul 🙂
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Thanks for this Josephine, I always seem to find my best free online poetry stuff via you. It’s just what I need right now as I haven’t written anything for ages. Maybe it will get me going again!
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Give it a go. I think these courses are often what we make of them. I am *slightly* anxious that it might be another form of procrastinating for me, although the timing is good and it is only for three weeks. 🙂
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hi Josephine, I am in the middle of the How to Make a Poem, it is good and I am learning something from it. I have been writing poetry for the years now, I began at the age of 69, it is a fantastic thing to do – it has given me a new life after so many years of working, it is my “me time”. Thank you I have been reading your blog about the Residency in School and enjoyed it – Iliked Katy Perry.
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Thanks very much for commenting, Katy, and how wonderful to hear that you are enjoying reading and writing poems! 🙂
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Me again, I called her Katy Perry, she was, of course, Rebecca Perry. Sorry
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Ah! Quite the comedy of errors here since I misread your comment and thought *your* name was Katy Perry! Yes, Rebecca Perry is great – I use Beauty/Beauty a lot in workshops. Thanks, again, Mauve! 🙂
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