Why do it?

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

Just another Wednesday

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

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

Be Here First I don’t know my trees but I know my trees. Their angling for what has spurned them; their spitting … More

The Collection The Matter of This World: New and Selected Poems (Slow Dancer, 1987) I found The Matter of … More

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

Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More

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

Everyone who enters the stage begins by saying thank you * That silence * Mostly nearly all the time * … More

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

Sitting over toast and marmalade with Peter Sansom yesterday morning he said to me: ‘I don’t bother with novels any … More

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

Photo credit: Felix Clay, The Guardian Heard I can’t remember a time in my teaching career when there wasn’t … More

Ellen Doré Watson was a new name to me until recently. ‘Be Here First ‘ is a good example of … More