Author: Anthony Wilson

I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, is available now from Blue Diode Publishing. My current research project, funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.

Grandmaman

A few words about the piece below. I wrote the first draft of it in 1989, a year after the … More

The Year of Living Deeply 19: Open letter _ A week with Mark Hollis

Dear Mark I am sorry it has taken so long to getting round to writing to you, not least because … More

In memory of Les Murray

I was saddened to hear of the death of the Australian poet Les Murray yesterday. In the autumn of 1997, … More

The Year of Living Deeply 11: In the taxi with Twyla Tharp

I have been thinking a lot about habits recently. The unconscious, unthinking ones which, as Sylvia Plath said about words, … More

The Year of Living Deeply 10: A week without –

I have just started reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for life. Like those other classics … More

Open letter in memory of John Smith (LentBlog39)

Dear John Smith I was deeply saddened to hear that you died earlier this year in March. I am told … More

Weather vs climate (LentBlog38)

The main difference between weather and climate is the timescale that they each refer to. Weather describes the conditions of the … More

On Diane Abbott and Assange -Meditation on a line by Anne Lamott (LentBlog37)

There’s an old Mel Brooks routine where the psychiatrist tells his patient, “Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli … More

Worship music? (LentBlog36)

Tonight at 9.00 pm Pooka Radio continue to assist me in fulfilling my lifelong ambition to become a DJ by … More

The recess (LentBlog35)

As we get to the business end of Lent, in the week the church still names Holy, I have been … More

Advertisement (LentBlog33)

I wrote the poem below in the summer of 2015. David Cameron had won a slim majority in the … More

From Brussels With Love (LentBlog32)

Well, by tomorrow night, we might be out. Crashed out with no deal or sailing into a bright future presaged … More

Open letter to Alicia Stubbersfield (LentBlog31)

Dear Alicia I can’t believe it is three years since I got to hang out with you at Totleigh … More

Meditation on self-care (LentBlog30)

Like a lot of things I am ashamed to admit discovering late in life -Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Deborah Levy, … More

Writing prompts (blog post ending with a line by Shawna Lemay) (LentBlog29)

after Shawna Lemay Write a poem about the rain. Or the wind. Write about what you learned at university. … More

Open letter to Ted Hughes (LentBlog27)

Dear Ted Hughes You probably won’t remember me. I wrote to you before, in the summer of 1998. I did … More

Why we need to save the Poetry Business (LentBlog26)

after Mark Halliday Because of the writing days. And because The discovery will not happen on its own, unprompted, … More

My Brexit week off (LentBlog25)

I’ll admit it straight away: I didn’t last the whole week. Sometime on Friday evening I switched the radio … More