Working the room

‘So is that your main idea?’ ‘That’s it, yes.’ ‘That people get stuff done out of a social need to…

The whole gang

‘Are you going to do one?’ ‘Who let you in?’ ‘Are you?’ The book has its feet up on my…

An Angel comes to you …

In terms of my poetry world, 2015 has turned out to be a year of endings and legacies. The Poetry…

Don’t miss tomorrow’s guest blog post by Naomi Jaffa, in which she reminisces about two of her favourite poets from…

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless many with a crayon in his mouth -Kurt Vonnegut A friend…

One of the great joys of writing this blog in the last year has been to invite some of my…

Anthony often writes that he is ‘at a Thing.’ I go to Things all the time. Poetry World is full…

Dear Michael I picked up your book the other day and wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying…

It’s complicated. There I am in the bookshop, the one we all love, looking for a book. No one is…

There is a certain jubilation and truancy at the heart of an inspiration […a] liberation and abundance which is the…

It’s complicated. Say you are out and about and want to buy a cup of coffee. I’m not going there,…

I am grateful to Victoria Field of NAWE for reviewing Lifesaving Poems in the current edition of Writing in Education. You can download…

I arrive late back at the house. It is already dark. The usual reassuring things are there: unopened mail, the…

Teachers’ words should not be ‘How to write’ but ‘How to try to say what you really mean’ – which…

‘There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as…

Photo credit: from Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon (p 138) This is a poster presentation I gave at…

Here is a quotation from Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception that I have been meditating on for a while now. I have…