The Good, in memory of Anna Craft

My friend and colleague Anna Craft has died. She was famous -if that is the right word- as a researcher … More

T.S. Eliot’s ‘Hysteria’

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

Coming home to Aldeburgh

  A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost … More

Teaching people who hate poetry

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

Losing my ambition

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

Poetry exhaustion

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

When one poet rescues another poet

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

Eating Outside, by Stephen Berg

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

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