The most immediate and forthright analysis of a poem I have seen at any poetry workshop occurred as I passed … More
Category: Faber
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
‘I am fragments’: a note from Seamus Heaney
In the spring of 1998 I wrote to Seamus Heaney. I asked him to consider writing a Foreword to the … More
Lifesaving Poems: Dave Smith’s ‘Reading the Books Our Children Have Written’
I once heard Stephen Knight say ‘If I am reading well then I am writing well.’ It was a Q … More
Lifesaving Poems: Tom Paulin’s ‘A Lyric Afterwards’
‘A Lyric Afterwards’ was the poem in which I finally got Tom Paulin. I had been given a tape of him … More
Lifesaving Poems: Simon Armitage’s ‘To His Lost Lover’
To His Lost Lover Now they are no longerany trouble to each other he can turn things over, get down … More
Sideswiped by poetry
And sometimes you don’t know where it comes from. It appears as a heat, prickly, under your skin, your scalp. … More
When poets don’t appear
I have been thinking a lot recently about the career trajectory of poets, including my own, whose work briefly becomes visible … More
When poets disappear
Some of my favourite poetry books of all time are anthologies. Not the headline selections everybody has (and has to … More