Mark McGuinness

Lovely to wake up and discover @amouthfulofair is one of the 9 best podcasts for poetry lovers, according to @Pod_Review :)

‘Scepticism is our friend in all dealings with anything to do with that word "magic". Because it forces us to really, really think about what’s going on here.’ Gregory Leadbetter on ‘Alchemy’ from The Infernal Garden @NineArchesPress Listen: lttr.ai/AjQgF #poetry

"Even when AI creative work is rated better in a blind test, as soon as the origin is revealed, audiences recoil from it. Because we don’t want polished perfection in art: we want an authentic human connection." lttr.ai/AfqJ7 #AICreativity #AIArt #CreativeEconomy

‘Bowie was singing about the downside of space travel in 1969 and the threat from AI in 1970.’ lttr.ai/AfabC #CreativeProfessionals #CreativeEconomy

@kevinroose Can you please lineate the poetry? Line breaks are a crucial element of poetic skill...

We made a blind taste test to see whether NYT readers prefer human writing or AI writing. 86,000 people have taken it so far, and the results are fascinating. Overall, 54% of quiz-takers prefer AI. A real moment! nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Jorge Luis Borges on the riches of English

‘If the reader feels disorientated, it means they understand.’ @NickMakoha reads from The New Carthaginians (@PenguinUKBooks) and discusses the book. Listen to the podcast: lttr.ai/AonTg #poetry

‘When you move to somewhere for the first time, everything’s coming to you fresh. That space has a character, and an energy, and a being of its own.’ @timiswriting on ‘Occupied’ from Dark Angels (Paekakariki Press) lttr.ai/Ankqn #poetry

今日はポッドキャストを始めて１周年の記念日🎤 特別な今日配信の最新インタビューは、初の対面収録でした。 在英55年で、日英親善への親身な活動でエリザベス女王から勲章を受けた方のライフストーリーは、在英日本人には頷くことも多いはず🇬🇧 ➡️x.gd/vkTEL　#ポッドキャスト

‘I don’t have to worry about being accepted by a poetry establishment at all. I work at the craft, but not to please anybody that would be a gatekeeper.’ ~ @Orna_ross Listen to the episode: lttr.ai/Aojck #poetry #hastings #Brigid

Written English has barely changed in 300 years. If you can read Harry Potter, you can read Robinson Crusoe (1719). The Spelling of our Tongue was in the main ſettled ere the eighteenth Century, & the Grammar has ſuffer'd but little Alteration ſince. Yet before this happy Settlement, things were exceeding ſtrange. In Shakeſpeares dayes, ſpelling was much more variable, & you ſhall finde notable differences in the grammar: "thou" could bee intimate or inſulting, depending vpon whom you ſayd it to; to chooſe amiſse had conſequences. Wende we now tuo hundred ȝeer bifore, to Chauceres tyme. It seemeth ȝit as Englisshe, but it nis nat esy to reden withouten greet connynge. Yet tuo hundred wintre er, sone after þat the Normans comen to þis londe, is Englisch on muchel wandlunge. Þe tunges work is tobroken, Frensce wordes comeþ in, and þe writunge is al totwemed. Þy furðor þu underbæc færst, þy gelicor biþ Englisc gesewen þære Deniscan spræce. Englisce bec þæs m. geare ne mæg nan mann rædan buton he sundorlice geleornad sy.

a few thoughts from @SahilBloom on the perils of blind pursuits for efficiency, and making sure we don’t “optimize the life out of life” by overlooking the hidden values of things tech is increasingly doing for us.

@edbatista Thank you Ed, connecting with you was one of the magical effects of the blog.

@markmcguinness And I'm so glad you started when you did, Mark--you were an important inspiration to me! edbatista.com/2008/04/mark-m…

Twenty years ago today, I published my first blog post. It was a bit rubbish. I deleted it years later. It didn’t matter what I wrote. It mattered *that* I wrote. 20 years on: start before you’re ready, find great teachers, don’t worry where it leads. What are you starting?

@AmbJapanUK ようこそ

Excited to be @CelticFC!! Go Daizen⚽️! Go Reo⚽️! Truly “a club like no other”👍

‘We get so used to how our houses speak that we stop hearing them. And actually, there’s this kind of wonderful symphony going on the whole time.’ @timiswriting on ‘Occupied’ from Dark Angels (Paekakariki Press) lttr.ai/Ankqm #poetry

‘This whole poem is like a nightmare that folds back in on itself, that you can never escape, as we keep encountering the same words, the same phrases, the same images.’ Listen to the episode: lttr.ai/An39j #poetry #coleridge #ancientmariner

Me, talking about poetry. And houses that speak. And buttering cats’ paws. With the brilliant Mark McGuinness.

‘My poems are like strange sea creatures ... At a particular point, they decide they want to go to the light, float up through the murky water, and explode in bubbles on the surface.’ @timiswriting on ‘Occupied’ from Dark Angels (Paekakariki Press) lttr.ai/Ankqd

A beautiful, relatable and thought provoking poem in the latest fascinating episode of the top-notch podcast, "A Mouthful Of Air". Don't miss! @amouthfulofair @markmcguinness @ewenglass @EllaFrears @PavillionPoetry

‘The poem is bafflingly strange, but we can somehow make perfect sense of it! Curiouser and curioser, as Alice might say. Or if you ask me, cleverer and cleverer.’ Listen to the episode: lttr.ai/AnpdF #nonsenseverse #nonsensepoetry #LewisCarroll #Jabberwocky