It was one of those throwaway remarks made by one writer, male, to another, ditto, in one of those books … More
Category: Reading Poetry
#NaBloPoMo 17 – Coffee? (meditation on a blog post by Josephine Corcoran)
If you came round for coffee these days you’d be offered decaff. Doctor’s orders, I’d say. And against my better … More
A household name
I turn the radio on and switch it off again, unable to settle to anything. There is still no sign … More
No one you know
‘You look upset.’ ‘I am upset,’ I say. ‘Well, not so much upset as disappointed.’ ‘Want to talk about it?’ … More
Mark Strand on reading poetry -a found poem
Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you … More
Dark horses: 21 Lifesaving Poems which should be better known
Readers of this blog will know that I make a list at the end of each year showing the most … More
Poetry is knowledge -by Octavio Paz
Poetry is knowledge, salvation, power abandonment. An operation capable … More
Guest blog post: David Ferry’s ‘Lake Water’, by Martyn Crucefix
This is the second in a series of guest blog posts about poets who have been overlooked and who should … More
Why poetry matters
The value of poetry is that it should matter … first to the writer and then to the reader. Michael … More
Guest Post: How I put The Art of Falling together, by Kim Moore
How I put The Art of Falling together In May 2012 my first pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolves … More
The missing poet
I have been at a thing. Poets I love and trust were there. We laughed. We invented scurrilous Twitter-profiles. It … More
Inside Lifesaving Poems 4
I have been moving. Not moving house, moving within it. Stuff has come with me, some of it has vanished … More
Lifesaving Poems interview podcast
This is the link to the podcast of the interview I gave yesterday on the Arena programme, RTE, about … More
Lifesaving Poems: Yevtushenko’s ‘Damp white imprints dog the feet’
Damp white imprints dog the feet; snowbound trolley, snowbound street. Her tip of glove to lip and cheek, “Goodbye.” Go. … More
Inside Lifesaving Poems 2
Artwork by Angus Joseph Alongside each poem in Lifesaving Poems is a short commentary about how I came across … More
Lifesaving Poems: Gwen Harwood’s ‘Cups’
Cups They know us by our lips. They know the proverb about the space between us. Many slip. They … More
Why do it?
because of the words and because of the books because of the woman in the anorak at the swimming baths … More
Making Poetry Happen
Announcing the publication of Making Poetry Happen: Transforming the Poetry Classroom (Bloomsbury, 2015). Making Poetry Happen provides a valuable resource … More
