I am delighted to have a new poem, Some More Strategies for the End of the World, published today at … More
Category: Poems
Going for coffee
The book and I are passing each other messages through a third party. Neither of us bothers with the niceties … 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
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
Visiting hours
I am visiting the book. We have already been through a lot together, including the part where I killed it and … More
Lifesaving Poems: Denise Levertov’s ‘The Secret’
The Secret Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the … More
On writing and illness
Reading Arthur W. Frank’s astonishing At the Will of the Body recently has given me pause to reflect on the relationship … More
Murdering my darling
I have murdered my darling. Like a bird of a certain blue vintage, it is ex, dead, kaput, finished. The … 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
After Paris
I found two blog posts especially moving in the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Paris, both by the same … More
Lifesaving Poems: Ellen Doré Watson’s ‘Be Here First’
Be Here First I don’t know my trees but I know my trees. Their angling for what has spurned them; their spitting … 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
Making Poetry Happen
Announcing the publication of Making Poetry Happen: Transforming the Poetry Classroom (Bloomsbury, 2015). Making Poetry Happen provides a valuable resource … More
Influences: my first reader
My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to … 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
Cut through
Cut through to what happens when you listen. Cut through to making it happen, listening for it, failing, then doing … More
New Year letter
Dear Ant Looking forward to 2015 it’s tempting to think it will never reach the heights of 2014. Big mistake. Huge. … 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
Lifesaving Poems 