On generosity

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

Aldeburgh and silence

Mark Doty had it. And John Hartley Williams. And Esther Morgan. And Roy Blackman, introducing Mark Doty talking about Whitman. … More

Below is a collection of my blog posts for the 2014 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. I will update it as I … More

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost … More

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

I have not read a book in six months -Raymond Carver, ‘Drinking While Driving’ I can still remember the shock … More

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

I’m grateful to you, you see. I wanted to tell you. –Raymond Carver (‘For Tess’) A kind, wise man once … More

Morning on Earth Morning on earth, light snow, and just when it was so warm, practically spring. But the thermometer … More

A year ago I published Riddance, a book of poems, with Worple Press. It concerns my diagnosis and experience of cancer … More

Ann Sansom is one of my all-time favourite people, poets or normal, ever. I count myself fortunate to have worked … More

Readers who have followed my Lifesaving Poems series will know by now that there isn’t and wasn’t a plan about … More

Seven Ways of Reading Gillian Allnutt: How The Bicycle Shone: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe; 216pp; £12) 1 It’s … More

As I say in my previous blog post, I owe my knowledge of ‘8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970’ to the … More

I have written before that there are a wide range of reasons for including the poems I have in my … More

I have just been asked by Abegail Morley to send her a list of my poetry books of 2012 for … More

In the spring of 1999 I got the best education in poetry I have ever had. I was in Suffolk, … More