Lifesaving Lines

Thank you to everyone who has commented to me either publicly or in private about my new series of blog posts in which I look at a single line of poetry and meditate on its use, context and meanings.

As with my previous series, Lifesaving Poems, I have started to collect the posts in a single page on this site.

You can now find all of my Lifesaving Lines posts here.

In other news, I was delighted to be namechecked by Shawna Lemay at her wonderful and essential Transactions with Beauty blog the other week.

She was talking specifically about my most recent book of poems, The Afterlife (Worple Press, 2019). It really does seem a lifetime ago since I published it, so much has happened.

In particular she mentioned ‘To a Notebook’, my long meditation on the joys of stationery, mental health, illness, the body and struggles with faith. You can read her post here. Thank you, Shawna! It is an honour to be seen by anyone on planet poetry, not least by you.

Which prompts me to say, ahem, that it will be Christmas soon, and, well, ahem, The Afterlife would make a beautiful present for someone you love.

It is about all that I have mentioned and more: the loss of a loved one through dementia, the aftermath of cancer and the growing up of children. The stuff of life. And though I say so myself, it is stonking and haunting and not enough of you (ahem) have bought it. It’s twelve quid (if you live in the UK), less than the price of a new notebook. A bargain. Make Peter Carpenter’s day and buy a copy.

Here endeth the self-promotion.

I am grateful that you are there as we hurtle towards the darkness. Thank you as ever for reading.