After Paris

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

Finding Sharon Olds’s The Matter of This World

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

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

Here are the most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014. For the first time I have been able to compare last … More

I am not completely stupid. I know celebrity culture is here to stay. As my children frequently remind me, ‘It … 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 have been thinking a lot this week about the late Ted Wragg. When I joined the University of Exeter … More

I am sad because the great American poet Mark Strand has died. Among the tributes to him in the last … More

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

The poem and I are best friends. For ever. We hold hands in public and spend every spare minute with … 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 Saturday afternoon of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, Festival Director Naomi Jaffa conducted an interew with Adélia Prado, and … More

By the time you read this I will be far away from here. It has not happened yet, but I … More

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