#NaBloPoMo 15 – from the archives: On finding Adélia Prado

She started as a name. There I was, following my nose, minding my own business, trying to ignore all instincts … More

Lifesaving Poems: Ted Kooser’s ‘A Rainy Morning’

A Rainy Morning A young woman in a wheelchair, wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain, is pushing … More

Some writers influence you through the pull of their imagination on your work, opening up new worlds as you read … More

I have been sorting. I have been chucking. It’s been the recurring theme over the last eighteen months. I cleared … More

This blog would be nothing without its readers. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, made a comment or a … More

‘Which is why Aldeburgh going is such a disaster. It took years to achieve what they did, years. Of slog, … More

In terms of my poetry world, 2015 has turned out to be a year of endings and legacies. The Poetry … More

Don’t miss tomorrow’s guest blog post by Naomi Jaffa, in which she reminisces about two of her favourite poets from … More

because of the words and because of the books because of the woman in the anorak at the swimming baths … More

One of my personal, private highlights of last year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival was a Sunday morning breakfast hosted by The … More

Be Here First I don’t know my trees but I know my trees. Their angling for what has spurned them; their spitting … More

I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More

Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More

I am at a thing. Not a famous thing, but an important one nevertheless. People are there, people you and … More

Everyone who enters the stage begins by saying thank you * That silence * Mostly nearly all the time * … More

In preparation for this year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival I was asked some questions about my blogging by Festival programmer Dean … More

On the Sunday morning of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival I breakfasted with poets discussing the theme of writing poetry and … More

Early on Saturday morning of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (Tom Pickard threatened not to get up in time) Robert Seatter … More