Ghost chemo

It’s hard to describe. One day your are fine, not quite the same (age will do this to you), then … More

The blanket

Though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten here And I will say to you, I will do what I can … More

The book and I are passing each other messages through a third party. Neither of us bothers with the niceties … More

Nine years ago today I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells. Even though I have … More

Days Each one is a gift, no doubt, mysteriously placed in your waking hand or set upon your forehead moments … More

Hamlet The buzz subsides. I have come on stage. Leaning in an open door I try to detect from … More

I am visiting the book. We have already been through a lot together, including the part where I killed it and … More

The Secret Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the … More

Reading Arthur W. Frank’s astonishing At the Will of the Body recently has given me pause to reflect on the relationship … More

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

I have murdered my darling. Like a bird of a certain blue vintage, it is ex, dead, kaput, finished. The … More

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

I found two blog posts especially moving in the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Paris, both by the same … More

The Collection The Matter of This World: New and Selected Poems (Slow Dancer, 1987) I found The Matter of … More

My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to … More

The Burning Of The Houses Tottenham is on fire and I work in an arts centre where the sky is … More

Cut through to what happens when you listen. Cut through to making it happen, listening for it, failing, then doing … More

Dear Ant Looking forward to 2015 it’s tempting to think it will never reach the heights of 2014. Big mistake. Huge. … More