‘Where have you been?’ ‘Out,’ I say. ‘You were out for a long time,’ the book says. ‘Days.’ ‘I was…
Archive
Lifesaving Poems: Marie Howe’s ‘Prayer’
Concluding this mini-series of poems I shared in my reading at the Greenbelt festival last weekend, here is Prayer by Marie…
Lifesaving Poems: WN Herbert’s ‘The Black Wet’
Continuing in this mini-series of poems I shared in my reading at the Greenbelt festival last weekend, here is The…
Lifesaving Poems: Sharon Olds’s ‘Looking at Them Asleep’
Continuing in this mini-series of poems I shared in my reading at the Greenbelt festival last weekend, here is Looking…
Lifesaving Poems: Michael Laskey’s ‘Bike’
It was a huge privilege to share poems in workshops I gave at the Greenbelt festival last weekend. Here is…
Lifesaving Poems: Ann Gray’s ‘mercifully ordain that we may become aged together’
It was such a privilege to read from the cornucopia of talent assembled in Lifesaving Poems at the Greenbelt Festival over…
Suit. A new poem at Simon Parke’s blog
I am delighted to have Suit, a new poem published on Simon Parke’s blog, in his poem of the week…
Lifesaving Poems: Christopher Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’
To celebrate the appearance of my dear friend Christopher Southgate at this year’s Greenbelt Festival, I am republishing my Lifesaving…
All of The Book blog posts in one place
Thank you to all my readers who have been asking to see a page with all of The Book blog…
A list of found poems
Here is a list of the found poems I have been posting over the summer, including older posts from last…
Who would we be?, by Susan Sontag
A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. That means trying to understand, take in, connect…
When poetry moved underground, by Czeslaw Milosz
When poets discover that their words refer only to other words and not to reality which must be described as…
The back of an envelope thing
‘An amazing stillness this morning. A sense of impending exhaustion in the air. There was one robin as I went…
Not to forget
‘What drives you?’ says the book. ‘Haven’t we been here before?’ ‘What drives you?’ ‘Are you serious?’ ‘Never more,’ says…
Only the imperfections
‘What keeps you going?’ ‘You do,’ I say. ‘Not the others?’ ‘No, just you.’ ‘Do you ever think about the…
This divine breath, by Johann Herder
A breath of our mouth Becomes the portrait of the world, The type of our thoughts And our feelings…
Poets who remain poets, by Stephen Dunn
Young poets Who don’t think of themselves As apprentices Are notorious For resisting influences. They’ve experienced The first stages Of…
Other objects, by Primo Levi
Consider what value, What meaning Is enclosed even In the smallest Of our daily habits, In the hundred possessions Which…
Lifesaving Poems 