As I wrote in my recent post, I chose to call this series Lifesaving Poems because I actually believe … More
Category: Poetry
Lifesaving Poems: Brendan Kennelly’s ‘May the Silence Break’
May the Silence Break Because you do not speakI know the shockof water encountering a rock. Supremacy of silence is … More
Lifesaving Poems: Yves Bonnefoy’s ‘Let a Place be Made’
Let a Place be Made Let a place be made for the one who draws near,the one who is deprived … More
More Chelsea Than Sunderland
More Chelsea Than Sunderlandfor Humphrey PottsYour doctor’s line predicting your survival tickled mewatching Terry lift the trophy before the World … More
The Quiet Room
Six years ago today I was told I wasn’t going to die. Those weren’t the words my consultant used, but … More
Lifesaving Poems: Chris Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’
High FidelityThe man sits above the tracksat Bristol Parkway. He drinks tea,studies the distance.He notes the numbers of trains.With the … More
Lifesaving Poems: Elizabeth Jennings’s ‘A Letter to Peter Levi’
A Letter to Peter LeviReading your poems I am awareof translucencies, of birds hoveringover estuaries, of glass being spun for … More
Lifesaving Poems: Patrick Kavanagh’s ‘Wet Evening in April’
Wet Evening in AprilThe birds sang in the wet treesAnd as I listened to them it was a hundred years … More
Lifesaving Poems: Andy Brown’s ‘Prayer/Why I am Happy to be in the City this Spring’
Prayer/Why I am Happy to be in the City this Springfor creepers etched across a wall like the marble veins … More
On hearing the word ‘discharge’ for the first time
I never thought I would actually get to hear the word ‘discharge’ at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s … More
Lifesaving Poems: On Hugo Williams and Douglas Dunn
I can remember exactly where I was when I first read these poems. It was on the balcony of the … More
Kenneth Koch’s Melancholy
To My Heart at the Close of DayAt dusk light you come to batAs George Trakl might put it. How … More
Lifesaving Poems: Sharon Olds’s ‘Looking at Them Asleep’
Looking at Them Asleep When I come home late at night and go in to kiss the children,I see my … More
Lifesaving Poems: Julia Darling’s ‘Chemotherapy’ vs ‘Psalm 102’
I was astonished to find in an old diary today that by 8 March 2006, less than one month after … More
Miracle Fair -by Wislawa Szymborska
This week saw the death of poet and Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szmborska. She was 88. Her compatriot Czeslaw Milosz described … More
Lifesaving Poems: Marin Sorescu’s ‘With Only One Life’
With Only One LifeHold with both handsThe tray of every dayAnd pass in turnAlong this counter.There is enough sunFor everybody.There … More
Lifesaving Poems: Jackie Kay’s ‘Dusting the Phone’
Dusting the PhoneI am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen.I know this is not a good idea, … More
A Few Odds and Sods
By this time in January, 2006 I was fairly certain that something was very wrong with my health. Like a … More
Lifesaving Poems 