Before No shoes and a glossyred helmet, I rodeon the back of my dad’sHarley at seven years old.Before the divorce.Before…
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A holiness to exhaustion
First There is a holiness to exhaustion is what I keep telling myself, filling out the form so my TA…
Ourselves again
Tollund That Sunday morning we had travelled far. We stood a long time out in Tollund Moss: The low ground,…
Be kind
Be Kind Not merely because Henry James saidthere were but four rules of life—be kind be kind be kind be…
You’ve got to write it all down
The unexamined life’s no different from …
The Thing Is
The Thing Is to love life, to love it evenwhen you have no stomach for itand everything you’ve held dearcrumbles…
When I am Asked
When I am Asked When I am asked how I began writing poems, I talk about the indifference of nature. …
Autumn
Autumn One night goes on longer than the rest, never so long, whiled away. Then dawn. Goodbye, insects. Hollow casings…
God’s Grief
God’s Grief Great parentwho must have started outwith such high hopes.What magnitude of suffering,the immensity of guilt,the staggering despair.A mind…
Praise the Rain
Praise the Rain Praise the rain; the seagull diveThe curl of plant, the raven talk—Praise the hurt, the house slackThe…
The most popular lifesaving poems
Earlier this year my Lifesaving Poems blog enjoyed something of a milestone. Not as momentous as Jimmy Anderson taking his…
Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)
Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is…
The fear of poetry -by Muriel Rukeyser
The Fear of Poetry In this moment when we facehorizons and conflicts widerthan ever before, we want our resources,the ways…
Lifesaving Poems: Margaret Avison’s ‘Twilight’
Twilight Three minutes ago it was almost dark.Now all the darkness is in theleaves (there are no morelow garage roofs,…
Lifesaving Poems: Mandy Sutter’s ‘Caring for the Environment’
In 1991 I made the decision to spend more of my time concentrating on the thing that fulfilled me the…
Lifesaving Poems: Sean O’Brien’s ‘Before’
To safe and almost universal silence I published How Far From Here is Home? (Stride) a few days before Christmas in…
Go well
I have walked into the grief. I have walked into brave space, mine and others’. I have sat in…
Tired, but
I am tired. Though I write from a place of privilege and of safety, I am tired. Tired of feeling…
Lifesaving Poems 