Lifesaving Poems: Rosemary Tonks’s ‘The Sofas, Fogs, and Cinemas’

The Sofas, Fogs, and Cinemas I have lived it, and lived it, My nervous, luxury civilisation, My sugar-loving nerves have … More

Lifesaving Poems: Denise Riley’s ‘A Misremembered Lyric’

A Misremembered Lyric, by Denise Riley I heard this poem for the first time a week ago, at the Bodmin … More

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

Artwork by Angus Joseph Alongside each poem in Lifesaving Poems is a short commentary about how I came across … More

Now that we might finally be getting one, I found myself wondering recently how many of my Lifesaving Poems choices were about … More

The central organising principle of Lifesaving Poems is that each poet is represented by a single poem. There are poets you … More

This is the first in a series of guest blog posts by writers I admire. Having enjoyed speaking and reading … More

Lifesaving Poems has arrived Well, it has finally arrived. The anthology which began life as a blog, which began life as … More

I Am Not I I am not I. I am this one walking beside me whom I do not … More

And Yet the Books And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,That appeared once, still wetAs … More

Cups They know us by our lips. They know the proverb about the space between us. Many slip. They … More

Tomorrow I will be taking part at the Wenlock Poetry Festival in an event with Roz Goddard. We will be … More

I am at a thing. Canals are there. Sunlight on them, the last tourists, a shifting of the seasons. ‘Soon … More

Heaven on Earth Now that it is night, you fetch the wash from outer space, from the frozen … More

because of the words and because of the books because of the woman in the anorak at the swimming baths … 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

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