How to enter a poetry competition

You go a talk by a Leading Poet. No one you know is there, but still you sit at the … More

Sailing through

Dear Anthony Two cycles down, just six more to go. You are not looking bad, considering. The belligerent doctor who … More

I listened to the most wonderful radio programme about failure the other day. It featured Anne Enright talking with clear-eyed … More

Lately I have been pondering the practice of paying attention, vis-à-vis my habit of keeping a notebook to capture impressions, … More

Readers of this blog will know I have been thinking a lot about stationery recently. (Actually, that is something of … More

My blog post yesterday about the stationery thing provoked more responses than I ever imagined it would. Among the … More

At the start of each academic year, usually when I have known them for a week or so, I make … More

Dear Ant So you’ve had your first chemotherapy treatment. That first night, when you came home and carried the sick … More

Damp white imprints dog the feet; snowbound trolley, snowbound street. Her tip of glove to lip and cheek, “Goodbye.” Go. … More

My wife and I are at the airport of a European capital city. It’s late on a Friday evening, the … More

Dear Ant Isn’t it strange, how quickly you notice your passing from one world into the next? One minute … More

We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its … More

The Day After I made a leek and potato soup the day after, prompted by the look of the peeled … More

Gift A day so happy.Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.Hummingbirds were stopping over the honeysuckle flowers.There was no … More

Riddance has been reviewed by cancer patients, and former patients, under the aegis of Macmillan Cancer Support. You can find out … More

One year go I celebrated with friends the publication of Love for Now, my journal-memoir of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of … More

Dear Anthony I’m writing to let you know what you already know in your bones, as you put it much … More

Once upon a time I broke the rules and spoke with another poet (it doesn’t matter who) about a … More