A book into which everything can go, by Thomas Merton

It is necessary to write a book in which there will be a little less of the first person singular,…

Running a bath

‘What are you doing?’ the book says. ‘What’s it look like?’ I say. ‘Running a bath,’ the book says. ‘Genius,’…

‘What will you miss most?’ the book says. ‘About what?’ I say. ‘Me,’ says the book. ‘I didn’t know you…

In the last year, another government initiative has created a compulsory part of the curriculum: learning poetry by heart…

Recently I have featured prose writing by various writers, reshaping them in the form of found poems. Annie Dillard on…

If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we’d live in…

Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you…

‘What drives you?’ ‘I’ve only just woken up!’ I say to the book. ‘Don’t care. It’s morning. Work to be…

‘You know what your main problem is,’ the book says. ‘Needing to be liked.’ ‘That’s a good thing, isn’t it?’…

The more I talk about writing with students, teachers, colleagues and other writers, the less I am sure that we…

We need to re-think marketing as a story that either does or does not resonate with us. Do…

‘Aren’t you going get the phone?’ I say. ‘It won’t be for me.’ With a little groan the book…

Here is how it happens. The vision is, sub specie aeternitatis, a set of mental relationships, a coherent series of…

‘What do you think?’ I say to the book. It has held on to my poem for a week, and…

Even though it is sweltering, the book is wearing its dinner jacket. Its legs are stretched out, feet on my…

The adventures of the book have now clocked up fifty blog posts. Here is a list of all of them,…

The book is in its gardening clothes. ‘I’m going out,’ it says. ‘You’ve let the lawn go again.’ ‘You can’t…

‘I don’t know if I can do this any more.’ ‘Do what?’ the book says. ‘This.’ ‘Sit around waiting for…