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 Lines: The Gift, by Brendan Kennelly

I was at a thing. Very rarely for me, it was my own thing, only my second in front of…

I thought of it before I knew I had remembered it. Just the word ‘then’. Rereading and searching at speed…

As I try to hold on to beginner’s mind, I recall the practice of falling in love at a moment’s…

One of the great joys for me this summer was being able to get back to Greenbelt, a festival of…

As I come back to this blog, I am looking to try and inhabit what Zen practitioners call beginner’s mind.…

I am delighted to announce the publication of some new poems, which you can find at the links below. Having…

I was very saddened to learn today that the leading Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski has died, aged 80, of motor…

I am deeply grateful to Hilary Menos and Andy Brodie at The Friday Poem for taking a new poem of…

after Shawna Lemay Write a poem about the rain. Or the wind.Write about what you learned at university.Or did not…

To continue this season of not, where I have been reposting old blog posts and links to some others, I…

Here are some links from my archive to keep you going while I summon the energy and wherewithal to get…

Though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten hereAnd I will say to you, I will do what I can do…

First published on 1st April, 2019 – A week and a half ago I wrote here about my ‘climate change…

There were just a few of us in the room, gathered round a table. I had been invited to speak.…

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a…

The YouTube clip below is a recording of a reading I made last week for the University of Exeter Guild…

As the book might say, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? As the book also might say, I have been…