Places of hope

Anthony Wilson,

Here are some places that I have been visiting recently and derived much comfort from. I hope you enjoy them too.

Shawna Lemay’s blog is probably my all-time favourite blog by anyone ever. She is always on great form. Perhaps especially at the moment. Try these for size:

What is ordinary life, now?

And yes.

Exhaustion and miracles.

Every year, like some rare flowering plant, Natalie Jabbar’s blog bursts into life with beautifully curated poems that knock your socks off. Here are some that have rescued me recently:

A Quiet Joy, by Yehuda Amichai.

Paul Robeson, by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Between Going and Staying, by Octavio Paz.

Blessing the Boats, by Lucille Clifton.

I have been a fan of Josephine Corocoran’s blog for a long time. She has returned to it recently with beautiful observations about the intersection of family and the writing life.

Writing while cooking.

Look down.

Birdsong.

Readers of this blog will know that I would be in a very different place were it not for the blog of Simon Parke. Here are some of his recent lifesaving posts:

Managing the present.

My Coronavirus survival kit.

A meditation for anxious times.

And finally here is the beautiful blog of Justin Wise. The clue is in his name.

This post has several excellent links in it, so do make sure you read to the end: On being afraid.

And finally, this:

and this:

Published by Anthony Wilson

I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, is available now from Blue Diode Publishing. My current research project, funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.

11 Comments

  2. Thanks for all these rich resources, and how lovely that I have the time to follow them up and enjoy them!
    P.S. Skryweres is the Afrikaans word for a female writer, literally ‘writeress’. I use it for a couple of WordPress accounts I comment on.

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. Like some rare flowering plant! That’s really generous, Anthony. I appreciate your dedicated readership and you sharing my selections. Take good care.

    Liked by 1 person

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