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Lifesaving Poems

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Essential poems for hard times

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Author: Anthony Wilson

I am a poet and writing tutor. For 24 years I worked 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, was published in 2023 by Blue Diode Press. Plymbridge, a new pamphlet, is available now from Worple Press. My final research project, funded by the Foyle Foundation, was Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.

UCU Strike Poems 7 -Try to Praise the Mutilated World, by Adam Zagajewski

Try to Praise the Mutilated World Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, drops … More

Adam Zagajewski, Education, Higher Education, Neoliberalism, Poems, Poetry, Poets, reading poems, Reading Poetry, Try to Praise the Mutilated World, UCU Strike, USS Strike, USS Strikes

UCU Strike Poems 6 – The Way Things Work, by Jorie Graham

The Way Things Work   is by admitting or opening away. This is the simplest form of current: Blue moving … More

Education, Higher Education, Jorie Graham, Neoliberalism, Poems, Poetry, Poets, reading poems, Reading Poetry, The Way Things Work, UCU Strike, USS Strike, USS Strikes

UCU Strike Poems 5 – Day of Song, Day of Silence, by Ada Limón

  Day of Song, Day of Silence   The strange crying sounds of the peacocks on the private school grounds … More

Ada Limon, Higher Education, Poems, Poetry, Poets, reading poems, Reading Poetry, UCU Strike, USS Strike

UCU Strike Poems 4 -Things I Learned at University, by Kate Bingham

Things I Learned at University How to bike on cobblestones and where to signal right. How to walk through doors … More

Education, Going to University, Higher Education, Kate Bingham, Lifesaving Poems, Neoliberalism, Oxbridge, Poems, Poems about education, Poetry, Poets, UCU Strike, University Debt, USS Strike, USS Strikes

UCU Strike Notebook

A passerby comes up to my group and hands us a brown paper bag. ‘It’s full of flat whites,’ she … More

Depression, Education, Higher Education, Jane Feaver, John Wedgwood Clarke, Keeping a notebook, mindfulness, Neoliberalism, Notebooks, Public Enemy, Simon Parke, Socrates, Stationery, UCU Strike, University of Exeter, USS Strike, USS Strikes

UCU Strike Poems 3 – Calling Him Back from Layoff, by Bob Hicok

Calling Him Back from Layoff I called a man today. After he said hello and I said hello came a … More

Bob Hicok, Calling Him Back from Layoff, Higher Education, Poems, Poems about work, Poetry, Poetry and Work, Poets, UCU Strike, USS Strike

UCU Strike Poems 2 – Invisible Work, by Alison Luterman

Invisible Work Because no one could ever praise me enough, because I don’t mean these poems only but the unseen … More

Alison Luterman, Education, Higher Education, Poems, Poems about work, Poetry, Poets, UCU Strike, USS Strike, Work Poems

UCU Strike Poems 1 – What Work Is, by Philip Levine

What Work Is We stand in the rain in a long line waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work. You … More

Education, Higher Education, Philip Levine, Poems, Poems about work, Poetry, Poetry and Work, Poets, UCU Strike, USS Strikes, What Work Is, Work

Late February notebook

Aesthetics of Creating Something This doesn’t just happen: It happens to you. Kenneth Koch, from One Train, p.64 ∞ ‘Even … More

Adam Haslett, Being a Writer, Higher Education, James Baldwin, Keeping a notebook, Kenneth Koch, mindfulness, Notebooks, Poetry, Poets, Robert Creeley, Scaachi Koul, Simon Parke, Tuition Fees, UCU Strike, USS Strike, Writing

On Being Chipper

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

Anxiety, Blood Cancer, Cancer, Chemotherapy, Counselling, Depression, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Mental Health at Work, Mental Health Awareness, Remission, Remission and Counselling, Remission and Mental Health

February notebook

‘The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to … More

Ada Limon, Adam Haslett, Annie Dillard, Being a Poet, Being a Writer, Birdwatching, Holocaust Memorial Day, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, James Baldwin, Junot Diaz, Keeping a notebook, Leonard Cohen, Maya Angelou, Naomi Shihab Nye, Notebooks, Paul Klee, Pico Iyer, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Reading, Writing, Writing Process

The how of it

  I was having a coffee with a new writer friend the other day. Not having known each other for … More

Anthony Wilson, Being a Poet, Being a Writer, Being Creative, Cancer, Creativity, Deck shoes, Frasier, Notebooks, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Prose, Trusting in the Process, What we talk about when we talk about writing, Writing, Writing Process, Writing Routines

End of January notebook

Blind panic when the anthology I am in arrives. The hunt, ever more despairing, for my poem, certain that they … More

Ali Smith, Andy Brown, Birdwatching, Chinese Poems, Connie Bensley, Cormac McCarthy, Education, Gwendolyn Brooks, John Burnside, Keeping a Journal, Keeping a notebook, Li Po, Notebooks, Sam Hammill, Simon Parke, Stationery, Sue Dymoke, Sven Birkerts, The Crossing

Late January notebook

  […]       you write because you know them not because you understand them because you don’t you are … More

Adorno, Ali Smith, All the Pretty Horses, Andrew Motion, Autumn, Being a Writer, Birdwatching, Cormac McCarthy, E. L. Doctorow, Frank O'Hara, Grace Paley, James Wood, Jonathan Franzen, Karl Ove Knaussguard, Keeping a notebook, Lydia Davis, Motorhead, Notebooks, Observation, Simone Weil, The End of the Story, Writing

Mid-January notebook

Barely any bird-life since the gales. A robin’s song this morning, from behind the curtains. And yesterday one tiny blue … More

Ada Limon, Alan Fletcher, Ali Smith, Annie Proulx, Birdwatching, Commonplace Books, Cormac McCarthy, Edith Wharton, Henri Nouwen, John Ashbery, Jorie Graham, Keeping a notebook, Matthew Zapruder, Notebooks, Seth Godin, The Shipping News, Tomaz Salamun, Twitter

January notebook

Two successes I can claim as a parent: they both love music and football (even if one of them supports … More

Ali Smith, Annie Proulx, Cancer, Chelsea, Henri Nouwen, Jose Gonzalez, Keeping a notebook, New Year's Resolutions, Notebooks, Pauline Boty, Perfume Genius, Poets and notebooks, Poets' Notebooks, Simon Parke, Stationery, Thom Gunn

A new nativity monologue -An Angel

  An Angel   His people spoke to our people, contracts were exchanged, and the gig was on. Hush hush, … More

Advent, Advent Monologues, Advent Poetry, Christmas Poems, Nativity, Nativity Poems, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Writing

What you read in 2017

Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats:   … More

Anthony Wilson, Barack Obama, Being a Poet, Being a Writer, Being Creative, Cancer, Elizabeth Frink, Hauser & Wirth, John Ashbery, Kenneth Branagh, Lifesaving Poems, Lifesaving Poetry, literature, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Reading Poetry, Remission, Senator John McCain, Wallander, Writing, Writing Poems, Writing Poetry, Writing Process

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