Lifesaving Poems: Peter Sansom’s K563

K563As on most fine summer Sundayswe are breakfasting outside with our books.This morning it is one of the Divertimentikeeps the…

Lifesaving Poems: Jaan Kaplinski’s ‘This morning was cold’

This morning was cold, but it warmed about mid-day.Blue clouds piled up in the north.I came from a meeting -…

PrayerEvery day I want to speak with you. And every day something more importantcalls for my attention – the drugstore,…

Alone I One evening in February I came near to dying here. The car skidded sideways on the ice, out…

If you write poetry (and I assume that if you do, you are also actively engaged in reading it), sooner…

The Divine ImageTo Mercy, Pity, Peace, and LoveAll pray in their distress;And to these virtues of delightReturn their thankfulness.For Mercy,…

I was struck by a remark of Seamus Heaney in an interview he gave some years ago now. He was…

‘If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more.’ -Xavi Hernandez (Spain and Barcelona)…

Love Listen Let’s love, listen, take timewhen time is all we have. Let’s be unafraid to be kind,learn to disregard…

You have to hand it to Jamie Oliver for giving it a go. How he kept so positive confronting all…

Andrew Motion is my hero because he set up the Poetry Archive with Richard Carrington. He has nothing left to prove. As…

Of Mutability, Jo Shapcott (Faber) Really good books about cancer are rare. Really great books about cancer, the ones that…

What Michael Gove says about trainee teachers having the opportunity to observe and learn from teachers in school is critically important.…

‘Whenever I work with people – no matter what their age – I try to run a checklist through my mind: are…

I hate end-of-year roundups. But I was so impressed by five books of poetry this year that I felt I…

I love the silence that descends on a classroom full of people who are all engaged in the act of…