Lifesaving Poems: Frank O’Hara’s ‘Why I am Not a Painter’

Here is a revelation: I did not always adore the work of Frank O’Hara. I had pause to consider why … More

Lifesaving Poems: Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Words, Wide Night’

Like a lot of people I first came across Carol Ann Duffy‘s ‘Words, Wide Night’ as a Poems on the … More

I have published a new poem in the style of Kenneth Koch, On Twitter, at Ink Sweat & Tears. Whether … More

August Kleinzahler, 2004 International Griffin Poetry Prize Winner, Opens the 2005 Awards Ceremony My reader is immune to fashion or … More

Photo Credit: Tatiana Wilson You make the thing because you love the thing and you love the thing because someone … More

Norman MacCaig’s ‘Aunt Julia’ was the first poem I remember reading which made me think ‘I need to do this’. … More

I have said before that one of the most useful things I have done in my life was to be … More

Last week I read Antony Dunn‘s marvellous essay about his poetics, ‘To Tell You the Truth’ (from In Their Own … More

I began writing the Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts in May 2010. The idea was to celebrate the poems that I … More

I came across ‘Elegy for Jane’ having found poems by Theodore Roethke in Ted Hughes’ classic anthology of poems and … More

As I say in my full length review of Jo Shapcott’s Of Mutability, really good books about cancer are rare. Really … More

I first came across ‘Sunday Lunchtime’ in a copy of Sunk Island Review, edited by Michael Blackburn. You can find … More

Seven years ago today, the date in the photograph above was the day I knew had cancer. By this … More

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

I began writing the Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts in May 2010. The idea was to celebrate the poems … More

I was thinking recently about John Ashbery. As I say in my post about my poetry highlights of 2012 one of … More

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

I fell in love with the poetry of Mark Strand via the enthusiasm of Rupert Loydell sometime in the late … More