On a spring day as far from ‘late in dour October’ it would be harder to imagine, James Schuyler’s The…
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Book news for 2023
I am delighted to announce that Blue Diode have accepted my new poetry manuscript and will publish my sixth collection,…
Lifesaving Lines: The Death of Fred Clifton, by Lucille Clifton
So this is a bit spooky. All week I had in mind these marvellous final words from Lucille Clifton’s poem…
Lifesaving Lines: Stone, I Presume, by Ian Mcmillan
For several weeks before Christmas I had these words from Ian McMillan’s peerless ‘Stone, I Presume’ rattling around my head.…
The Anti-Refugee Bill explained
Happy new year, everyone. I am interrupting my current series of Lifesaving Lines post to encourage you to watch a…
Not exactly good riddance
Just a few hours left of 2021. Time to reflect on what this year has been. Until a week or…
Call the Midwife
Call the Midwife What I like in a man: not showing desperate – though that’s what he was. Old enough…
Advent poems
During December 2019 I blogged a series of poems to celebrate the season of Advent. Some of these were about…
Lifesaving Lines: What the Living Do, by Marie Howe
Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem…
Lifesaving Lines: Indelible, Miraculous, by Julia Darling
I have been thinking a lot about the poetry of Julia Darling this week. Her work became essential to me…
Lifesaving Lines
Thank you to everyone who has commented to me either publicly or in private about my new series of blog…
Lifesaving Lines: Autumn, by Roo Borson
We have a lot of windows. I sit next to them at this time of the year thinking, Just five…
Lifsaving Lines: Alone, by Tomas Tranströmer
I have been thinking a lot this week about a line from Tomas Tranströmer’s masterpiece, ‘Alone’. (I have also blogged…
Lifesaving Lines: The Day After, by Michael Laskey
The line that’s been buzzing round my head this week is the final phrase from Michael Laskey’s miracle poem of…
Lifesaving Lines: Poem for Wednesday, by Naomi Jaffa
Recently, my relationship with Wednesdays has changed. It’s quite a long story, and one I don’t want to trouble you…
Lifsaving Lines: For Sheridan, by Robert Lowell
The line that’s been buzzing round my head the last couple of weeks is from Robert Lowell’s heartbreaking poem ‘For…
Lifesaving Lines: Fosterage, by Seamus Heaney
I was very saddened to hear of the death of Brendan Kennelly this week. He had been a long-standing presence…
Lifesaving Lines: The Bight, by Elizabeth Bishop
‘Awful but cheerful’ is the final phrase and line of ‘The Bight‘, by Elizabeth Bishop. I’ve always felt that the…
Lifesaving Poems 