Walking into the light

We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its business.…

Things people said when I had cancer

‘I am so, so sorry.’ ‘You’re going to be fine.’ ‘Fight it, you know you’re a fighter.’ ‘Are we going…

This is a momentous week. It marks the tenth anniversary of the day I was told I had cancer. To…

Padding down the stairs to make my mid-morning coffee, I become aware of a large black bag lying in the…

The thing about having cancer was that it was pretty obvious what was going on. I had been feeling fairly…

“I like writing best because it’s the hardest art. There are more balls to keep in the air at a…

One of the great functions of art is to help…

Last year MPT Magazine published a brilliant edition wholly dedicated to children’s poetry (Number 2, 2015), titled I Wish… It was one of…

I know I am hardly the first to draw parallels between running and writing. But, for what it is worth,…

I am still not sure why, but in the middle of December I decided to take up running again. When…

The Fear of Poetry In this moment when we face horizons and conflicts wider than ever before, we want our…

This blog is a thrilling ‘Howdunnit?’…possibly. You find me just starting on my fifth murder mystery, you see. I do…

Directors Chris and Nick Libbey introduce their film of John Ashbery’s poem: In the heart of Minneapolis stands the Irene Hixon Whitney…

Readers of this blog will know that I make a list at the end of each year showing the most…

Poetry is knowledge, salvation, power abandonment. An operation capable…

I am delighted to have Everything I Know of What I Want to Say, a new poem, published on Simon…

This is the second in a series of guest blog posts about poets who have been overlooked and who should…

Along with colleagues from the Arvon Foundation, The Open University and University of Exeter I have just begun…