Category: Lifesaving Poems

What is a lifesaving poem?

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

On Discovering My Voice

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

Lifesaving Poems: Craig Raine’s ‘Heaven on Earth’

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

Why do it?

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

Lifesaving Poems: Boris Pasternak’s ‘Hamlet’

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

Another look at Lux’s ‘An Horatian Notion’

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

Lifesaving Poems: Chrissy Williams’s ‘The Burning of the Houses’

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

Poetry highlights of 2014

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

The most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014

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