I started a bit of a thing for Max Richter a while ago. Then gave up. Last autumn I came…
Practice
Practice To weep unbidden, to wake at night in order to weep, to wait for the whisker on the face…
Any Common Desolation
Any Common Desolation can be enough to make you look up at the yellowed leaves of the apple tree, the…
Another Loss to Stop For
Another Loss to Stop For Against such cold and mercurial mornings, watch the wind whirl one leaf across…
As Planned
As Planned After the first glass of vodka you can accept just about anything of life even your own mysteriousness…
Empathy and New Year
Empathy and New Year A notion like that of empathy inspires great distrust in us, because it connotes a further…
A Blessing in Disguise
A Blessing in Disguise Yes, they are alive and can have those colors, But I, in my soul, am alive…
What you read in 2019
Here are my most popular blog posts of 2019. As you will have seen, I am taking a brief sabbatical…
Advent poems 24: Mary, by Anthony Wilson
Mary At first a fluttering then a kick, his fist pummelling my rib cage when I knelt to pray. They…
Advent poems 23: BC – AD, by U A Fanthorpe
BC – AD This was the moment when Before Turned into After, and the future’s Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.…
Advent poems 22: December, by James Schuyler
December Il va neiger dans quelques jours Francis Jammes The giant Norway spruce from Podunk, its lower branches bound, this…
Advent poems 21: Supper, by Beverley Bie Brahic
Supper Never before has she danced so well. Now she stands before him, her feet bare, Anklets lightly…
Goodbye to being a poet
For reasons I cannot go into here, I am finishing 2019 in a tired frame of mind. (I am not…
Advent poems 20: Humankind, by Kerry Hardie
Humankind We carry the trust. It was not imposed on us, nor are we heedless. Sometimes the stillness stands in…
Advent poems 19: Drunken Winter, by Joseph Ceravolo
Drunken Winter Oak oak! like like it then cold some wild paddle so sky then; flea you say “geese…
Advent poems 18: Ways of Rebelling, by Natalie Handal
Ways of Rebelling Who needs to be at peace in the world? It helps to be between wars, to…
Advent poems 17: Ultramarine, by Michael Symmons Roberts
Ultramarine for Philip Archer Looking for the perfect blue, water to swim in, not through, to fill his…
Advent poems 16: the prophet, by Lucille Clifton
the prophet came to me with a poor man’s tale of his one ewe lamb sworn to him…
Advent poems 15: ‘There was winter’s cold and moisture’, by Jaan Kaplinski
There was winter’s cold and moisture in the bedclothes, in the walls and floor, our bodies tired from a…
Advent poems 14: The Poet Wearies, by Adélia Prado
The Poet Wearies I’ve had it with being Your herald. Everybody has a voice, why am I the one…
Advent poems 13: from Midnight by Mourid Barghouti
To the victorious I will send an unsettling message and these simple questions: enemies, something gives me reason to…
