Lifesaving Lines: An October Salmon, by Ted Hughes

I walked into the middle of a Ted Hughes poem the other week. An early morning dog walk, like any … More

Lifesaving Lines: The Trees, by Philip Larkin

Early May. Sitting in the bay window upstairs at Cricklewood revising for finals. My pink vest and purple jeans phase. … More

But first came Plath. After Ursuala Le Guin, the only female author we studied (OK – Jane Austen). Her name … More

Our tiny minds blown by ‘The Wreck of the Deutschland’, ‘Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves’ and ‘As Kingfisher’s Catch Fire’, we … More

On a spring day as far from ‘late in dour October’ it would be harder to imagine, James Schuyler’s The … More

Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem … More

I have been thinking a lot about the poetry of Julia Darling this week. Her work became essential to me … More

Thank you to everyone who has commented to me either publicly or in private about my new series of blog … More

We have a lot of windows. I sit next to them at this time of the year thinking, Just five … More

I have been thinking a lot this week about a line from Tomas Tranströmer’s masterpiece, ‘Alone’. (I have also blogged … More

The line that’s been buzzing round my head this week is the final phrase from Michael Laskey’s miracle poem of … More

Recently, my relationship with Wednesdays has changed. It’s quite a long story, and one I don’t want to trouble you … More

The line that’s been buzzing round my head the last couple of weeks is from Robert Lowell’s heartbreaking poem ‘For … More

I was very saddened to hear of the death of Brendan Kennelly this week. He had been a long-standing presence … More

‘Awful but cheerful’ is the final phrase and line of ‘The Bight‘, by Elizabeth Bishop. I’ve always felt that the … More

I was at a thing. Very rarely for me, it was my own thing, only my second in front of … More

I thought of it before I knew I had remembered it. Just the word ‘then’. Rereading and searching at speed … More