Lifesaving Poems: Sean O’Brien’s ‘Before’

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

Lifesaving Poems: UA Fanthorpe’s ‘Atlas’

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

I first had the pleasure of reading this remarkable and delightful poem by Janet Fisher in 2001 in the company of a … More

Photo: Rob Starling ‘Fishermen’, by Alasdair Paterson, is one of my Lifesaving Poems. I first read it as a new teacher, … More

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

Colin Mallett, Sculptor The poets I go back to This article first appeared in the North magazine, in November 2007. … More

I was lucky. I was taught English in one of those classrooms with complete sets of A Taste of Honey, … More

It was summer. I found myself on the top floor of the library, on the recommendation of a friend: … More

One year I decided that I would decorate one of my teaching rooms with my collection of Poems on the … More

And sometimes you don’t know where it comes from. It appears as a heat, prickly, under your skin, your scalp. … More

I first met Lawrence Sail at a private view at a gallery just outside Exeter. My family and I … More

I came across Hubert Moore’s fantastic book of poems The Hearing Room (Shoetstring, 2006) via my friend and neighbour Lawrence Sail. In … More

I found John Burnside‘s ‘A Private Life’ in a poetry magazine some years ago. I wasn’t much interested in … More

Readers who have followed my Lifesaving Poems series will know by now that there isn’t and wasn’t a plan about … More

June 30, 1974 for Jane and Joe Hazan Let me tell you that this weekend Sunday morning in the … More