Lifesaving Poems: Peter Scupham’s ‘Early Summer’

I can remember exactly where I was when I first read ‘Early Summer’. It was on the balcony of … More

Lifesaving Poems: Shel Silverstein’s ‘Not Me’

I wrote yesterday about pitching poems in the classroom which are aimed not at the crowd but perhaps one … More

Who? Who is that child I see wandering, wandering down by the side of the quivering stream? Why does … More

I count myself lucky to have been taught by a team of English teachers who I have no doubt … More

The most fun I have ever seen a poet have at their own reading (with the possible exception of Jackie … More

The Journey One day you finally knewwhat you had to do, and began,though the voices around youkept shoutingtheir bad advice–though … More

It was the best of times. Jean Sprackland and I were tutoring the dream group at Totleigh Barton for a … More

It was the best of times. Jean Sprackland and I were tutoring a poetry course at Totleigh Barton, the Arvon … More

I once saw Michael Rosen teach a theatre full of tearfully happy children and adults these wonderful nonsense word games … More

In September 2006 my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma came to an end. I was not told I was officially in … More

I think my first bout of Poetry Exhaustion occurred sometime after my A levels. Our English paper was quite advanced for its … More

To His Lost Lover Now they are no longerany trouble to each other he can turn things over, get down … More

To safe and almost universal silence I published How Far From Here is Home? (Stride) a few days before Christmas in … More

Atlas There is a kind of love called maintenanceWhich stores the WD40 and knows when to use it; Which checks … More

Let Evening Come Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as … More

Some time ago I wrote about the importance to me of discovering, through my friend Duncan Kramer, the anthology The … More

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of getting back in touch with Mark Robinson, poet, author and former editor … More

Thanks to the recommendation of Naomi Jaffa (again) I had the smug pleasure of already knowing the work of Tony … More