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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.

Lifesaving Poems: Chris Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’

High FidelityThe man sits above the tracksat Bristol Parkway. He drinks tea,studies the distance.He notes the numbers of trains.With the … More

Chris Southgate, Lifesaving Poems, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Writing

In Praise of PGCE Students

PGCE students are so dedicated. They burn with desire to be amazing. They hand in their work and have beautifully … More

Education, Initial Teacher Education, PGCE, Primary

Lifesaving Poems: Elizabeth Jennings’s ‘A Letter to Peter Levi’

A Letter to Peter LeviReading your poems I am awareof translucencies, of birds hoveringover estuaries, of glass being spun for … More

Elizabeth Jennings, Lifesaving Poems, Peter Levi, philip larkin, Poetry, Poets, Writing

Lifesaving Poems: Patrick Kavanagh’s ‘Wet Evening in April’

Wet Evening in AprilThe birds sang in the wet treesAnd as I listened to them it was a hundred years … More

Lifesaving Poems, Love for Now, NHL, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Patrick Kavanagh, Poetry, Poets, Riddance

Lifesaving Poems: Andy Brown’s ‘Prayer/Why I am Happy to be in the City this Spring’

Prayer/Why I am Happy to be in the City this Springfor creepers etched across a wall like the marble veins … More

Andy Brown, Lifesaving Poems, Poetry, Poets, Presence

On hearing the word ‘discharge’ for the first time

I never thought I would actually get to hear the word ‘discharge’ at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s … More

Blood Cancer, Cancer, Health, Love for Now, Poetry, Remission, Riddance

Lifesaving Poems: On Hugo Williams and Douglas Dunn

I can remember exactly where I was when I first read these poems. It was on the balcony of the … More

Douglas Dunn, Duncan Kramer, Hugo Williams, Lifesaving Poems, Poetry, Poets

Kenneth Koch’s Melancholy

To My Heart at the Close of DayAt dusk light you come to batAs George Trakl might put it. How … More

Apostrophe, Direct Address, Kenneth Koch, Kenneth Koch's melancholy, Kenneth Koch's New Addresses, Lifesaving Poems, New Addresses, New York Poets, Poems, Poems of Direct Address, Poetry, Poets, To My Heart at the Close of Day

Lifesaving Poems: Sharon Olds’s ‘Looking at Them Asleep’

Looking at Them Asleep When I come home late at night and go in to kiss the children,I see my … More

Lifesaving Poems, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Sharon Olds

Lifesaving Poems: Julia Darling’s ‘Chemotherapy’ vs ‘Psalm 102’

I was astonished to find in an old diary today that by 8 March 2006, less than one month after … More

Chemotherapy, Julia Darling, Lifesaving Poems, Poetry, Poets

Creativity, Confidence and Challenge: The Write Team Research Report

  ‘I’ve learnt to be more confident with my ideas, because sometimes you have an idea that you just sort of … More

Teaching Writing, The Write Team, Writers in Schools, Writing Resources

7 things I have learned about cancer

Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of my diagnosis with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), an aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system. I … More

Blood Cancer, Cancer, Chemotherapy, Love for Now, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Radiotherapy, Remission, Riddance

Miracle Fair -by Wislawa Szymborska

This week saw the death of poet and Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szmborska. She was 88. Her compatriot Czeslaw Milosz described … More

Poetry, Poets, Presence, Wislawa Szymborska

On waiting to be diagnosed with cancer

Six years ago I began writing the journal which has become my forthcoming memoir of my experience of cancer. It … More

Blood Cancer, Cancer, Diagnosis, Health, Love for Now, Lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Riddance

Lifesaving Poems: Marin Sorescu’s ‘With Only One Life’

With Only One LifeHold with both handsThe tray of every dayAnd pass in turnAlong this counter.There is enough sunFor everybody.There … More

Bloodaxe, Life Lessons, Lifesaving Poems, Lifesaving Poetry, Marin Sorescu, mindfulness, Poems, Poetry, Poets, reading poems, Reading Poetry, Romanian Poetry, The Biggest Egg in the World, With Only One Life

Lifesaving Poems: Jackie Kay’s ‘Dusting the Phone’

Dusting the PhoneI am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen.I know this is not a good idea, … More

Jackie Kay, Lifesaving Poems, Poetry, Poets

A Few Odds and Sods

By this time in January, 2006 I was fairly certain that something was very wrong with my health. Like a … More

Cancer, Love for Now, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Riddance

Lifesaving Poems: John Logan’s ‘The Picnic’

The Picnic It is the picnic with Ruth in the spring. Ruth was third on my list of seven girls … More

Education, John Logan, Lifesaving Poems, Lifesaving Poetry, literature, love poetry, Poems, Poetry, Poets, Teaching Poetry, The Picnic

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ANTHONY WILSON

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