October 2020 Links

I’m moving house this month and I released a pamphlet, so it’s all been a bit frantic. Still, here are some things I’ve enjoyed engaging with this month.

Article

Vanessa Kissule writes about how poetry should be for everyone and how it is a transformative break:

Poetry stretches our ability to process the abstract, to reconcile with that which is and simultaneously isn’t. It is the wonderland in which contradiction is not just accepted but welcomed. There is a growing appetite for social media content that stokes nuanced response over dramatic spikes of dopamine or cortisol. A transformative poem demands we sit with an image and view it from this angle, then another and another.

Book

With everything going on, it’s a delight to escape into a rich fantasy world. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern understands this escape into fiction as a necessity. It’s a delight from start to finish, with stories stacked upon stories and a deep world below. It’s brilliant.

Poem

I’ve started limiting my social media usage, because I tend to get caught in a doomscrolling twitchy loop, but one of the things that keeps me on is #toptweetTuesday, where poets share a poem they are proud of and provide lovely feedback. It’s hosted by Black Bough Poetry and is one of the highlights of this week. Ankh Spice, (aka @seagoatscreams) is a consistent highlight and this is one of his most beautiful poems, a reminder of being alive.

Video

Exurb1a’s video on the nature of consciousness and qualia reduces a complex philosophical topic into a fascinating and entertaining fifteen minute video.

https://youtu.be/WX0xWJpr0FY

Podcast

Secretly Incredibly Fascinating is a dive each week into a mundane topic with interesting background and facts. It’s entertaining, educational and host Alex Schmidt’s curiosity for every detail is infectious.

Music

Four Tet’s new album is equally complex and relaxing. I’ve sunk into it this month.

https://youtu.be/kBzMopCiK8o