Lifesaving Lines: Autumn, by Roo Borson

We have a lot of windows. I sit next to them at this time of the year thinking, Just five…

Lifsaving Lines: Alone, by Tomas Tranströmer

I have been thinking a lot this week about a line from Tomas Tranströmer’s masterpiece, ‘Alone’. (I have also blogged…

The line that’s been buzzing round my head this week is the final phrase from Michael Laskey’s miracle poem of…

Recently, my relationship with Wednesdays has changed. It’s quite a long story, and one I don’t want to trouble you…

The line that’s been buzzing round my head the last couple of weeks is from Robert Lowell’s heartbreaking poem ‘For…

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Brendan Kennelly this week. He had been a long-standing presence…

‘Awful but cheerful’ is the final phrase and line of ‘The Bight‘, by Elizabeth Bishop. I’ve always felt that the…

I was at a thing. Very rarely for me, it was my own thing, only my second in front of…

I thought of it before I knew I had remembered it. Just the word ‘then’. Rereading and searching at speed…

As I try to hold on to beginner’s mind, I recall the practice of falling in love at a moment’s…

One of the great joys for me this summer was being able to get back to Greenbelt, a festival of…

As I come back to this blog, I am looking to try and inhabit what Zen practitioners call beginner’s mind.…

I am delighted to announce the publication of some new poems, which you can find at the links below. Having…

I was very saddened to learn today that the leading Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski has died, aged 80, of motor…

Here is a list of various found poems that I have made over the years. Happy holiday reading and looking…

I am deeply grateful to Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie at The Friday Poem for taking a new poem of…

after Shawna Lemay Write a poem about the rain. Or the wind.Write about what you learned at university.Or did not…

To continue this season of not, where I have been reposting old blog posts and links to some others, I…