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.

Lifesaving Poems: Margaret Avison’s ‘Twilight’

Twilight   Three minutes ago it was almost dark. Now all the darkness is in the leaves (there are no … More

Don’t clap

I once heard Andrew Motion give a poetry reading at a day-conference for teachers, writers and writers in education. There … More

Don Paterson’s ‘Oh God’ moment

The most immediate and forthright analysis of a poem I have seen at any poetry workshop occurred as I passed … More

Get out of the house while you can

Dear Ant So you’ve had your first chemotherapy treatment. That first night, when you came home and carried the sick … More

Bringing each other to perfection

One of the most powerful performances on my old Faber cassette tape of Ted Hughes reading his poems is ‘Bride … More

Spun in drafts

Damp white imprints dog the feet; snowbound trolley, snowbound street. Her tip of glove to lip and cheek, “Goodbye.” Go. … More

The crying boy at the airport

My wife and I are at the airport of a European capital city. It’s late on a Friday evening, the … More

All you have is now

  Dear Ant Isn’t it strange, how quickly you notice your passing from one world into the next? One minute … More

Teachers’ views of creativity in poetry writing

The third Writing Research Across Borders conference takes place this week in Paris. I will be presenting a poster of … More

Walking into the light

  We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its … More

No rights in this matter

I have been thinking a lot recently about final lines of poems. I’ve always been fond of Seamus Heaney’s comment about … More

You’ve got to eat

The Day After I made a leek and potato soup the day after, prompted by the look of the peeled … More

Cancer patients’ reviews of Riddance

Riddance has been reviewed by cancer patients, and former patients, under the aegis of Macmillan Cancer Support. You can find out … More

When did I get this?

One year go I celebrated with friends the publication of Love for Now, my journal-memoir of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of … More

By the way, you live

Dear Anthony I’m writing to let you know what you already know in your bones, as you put it much … More