Other people's writing blogs

Problems with Internet access on my computer since I bought an iPod going cheap from Dick Smith's. T says if I'd asked her, she would have told me so. She is rude about what iTunes (software for iPod) does to my non-Mac computer, but entirely correct. Time wasted: about 3 days' worth - and money. Even more money now, as Derek has to come in and fix it. In the mean time, am writing this on someone else's computer.

Got diverted reading other people's writing blogs, for a while. People writing about their inner world at the most immediate level - mostly not a good read, we are too similar. Stream of consciousness tends to become self-indulgent.

Still reading Otto Friedrich, I had forgotten my rule of not reading WWII stuff before going to sleep. So:

Poetry books collected from the library today. Read To be a poet by Maxine Hong Kingston in one go last night, (Harvard University Press, 2002), an agreeable book to hold and read - small, non-standard format. It is an expansion of her lecture at Berkeley. That did not matter, reading her is encouraging and reassuring, a welcome guide.

The other books are by Sharon Olds, Brian Turner, Hone Tuwhare, Robert Hass. Brian Turner was a favourite with people who heard the Poets Laureate at the National Library on Monday. Something gravelly and real about the way he read. Also he said "a kertle of sheep" or is it kirtle? Someone said that kirtle means a kilt...

Writing: Have been tidying up recent poems. I have stopped doing the free-flow writing in the last days, shall resume today.