Lifesaving Poems: Carrie Fountain’s ‘Poem Without Sleep’

Poem Without Sleep All the things that could happen to the baby came to me last night as I…

Nowhere Poet

It is odd to speak of missing someone you never met, but this is how I feel about the American…

My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to…

Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital 1 The IV drips its slow news. So long, lean and turbulent morning!…

In a Church No, no time for this the outside clamours to be heard, the books, you see,…

Here is a story about a recent failure of mine. It all started with an idea, which I knew, just…

‘What else are you guilty about?’ ‘Most things,’ I say. ‘It doesn’t stop with poetry, you know. Or those unread…

’Anything else?’ the book says. ’What do you mean?’ ’That you want to tell me?’ There is a long silence,…

‘What else are you not telling me?’ says the book. ‘Nothing,’ I say. The book rolls its eyes, gives a…

‘What you reading?’ says the book. ‘Nothing.’ ‘No need to be shy,’ says the book. ‘Go on, what is it?’…

‘What’s wrong?’ says the book. ‘Nothing,’ I say. ‘Liar.’ ‘Am not.’ ‘Are.’ ‘Aren’t.’ ‘Pants on fire. You’re hopeless. You should…

One of the central influences on my life is not a poet in the usual sense of the word,…

Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of…

I went home the other day. I mean home-home, where I was born, and where my parents still live.…

These are some of the things I have learned during the recent industrial action taken by my union, the UCU,…

Diving into the Wreck First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of…

An Horatian Notion The thing gets made, gets built, and you’re the slave who rolls the log beneath the block,…

from A New Guide 7 Look at this arch. It is part of a building more than seven hundred years old.…