I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More
Category: Poems
My hero: Michael Laskey
I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More
To my cancer
I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More
Taking a break
With the exception of some posts about poets featured at this year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, I am going to … More
The People of the Other Village, by Thomas Lux
One of the poets I am most looking forward to listening to at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in November is … More
Holidays, not term time
Never having succeeded at school, I’ve always thought of poetry as the holidays, not term time. Hugo Williams In November … More
Not exactly fearless
Someone who knows me very well knocked me sideways with a comment the other day. Remarking on this blog, … More
It is summer for months
It Is Summer for Months Clothes are skimpy and tans are got without flight bags. We saunter beside a … More
Lifesaving Poems: Naomi Shihab Nye’s ‘The Art of Disappearing’
The Art of Disappearing When they say Don’t I know you?say no. When they invite you to the partyremember what … More
The man kept piling things on
I am driving to a thing. Not a famous thing, an out of the way thing. A classroom, perhaps. … More
How to be a writing tutor
Thanks to the vision and generosity of Jean Sprackland, between 1999-2001 I had the privilege of working with the great … More
How to attend a poetry reading
Sometime in the early Nineties I did a very brave thing. I took myself to a poetry reading. I went … More
How to disappear
The review isn’t exactly vicious as such, merely purely personal and savage. It stops short of questioning your parentage, but … More
The class of my dreams
The Class to the Class of 2014 after Raymond Carver The class with beautiful scarves The class who learned … More
The most popular Lifesaving Poems
I began writing the Lifesaving Poems posts in May, 2011. Below is a list of the twenty most popular poems … More
The poem always wins
You think it will be about your childhood. It turns out to be about an onion. Or a night in … More
It has gone
For now, at least, it has gone. The notebooks with promising phrases, the backs of envelopes with doodles: they are … More
After the thing
I have finished the thing. People come up to me to say things. It seems to have gone well. While … More