The Secret Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the … More
Category: Writing
On writing and illness
Reading Arthur W. Frank’s astonishing At the Will of the Body recently has given me pause to reflect on the relationship … More
Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)
Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More
Murdering my darling
I have murdered my darling. Like a bird of a certain blue vintage, it is ex, dead, kaput, finished. The … More
Another look at Lux’s ‘An Horatian Notion’
One of my personal, private highlights of last year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival was a Sunday morning breakfast hosted by The … More
After Paris
I found two blog posts especially moving in the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Paris, both by the same … More
Lifesaving Poems: Ellen Doré Watson’s ‘Be Here First’
Be Here First I don’t know my trees but I know my trees. Their angling for what has spurned them; their spitting … More
Finding Sharon Olds’s The Matter of This World
The Collection The Matter of This World: New and Selected Poems (Slow Dancer, 1987) I found The Matter of … 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
Influences: my first reader
My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to … More
Lifesaving Poems: Chrissy Williams’s ‘The Burning of the Houses’
The Burning Of The Houses Tottenham is on fire and I work in an arts centre where the sky is … More
Cut through
Cut through to what happens when you listen. Cut through to making it happen, listening for it, failing, then doing … More
New Year letter
Dear Ant Looking forward to 2015 it’s tempting to think it will never reach the heights of 2014. Big mistake. Huge. … More
Poetry highlights of 2014
I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More
Standing up to cancer?
I am not completely stupid. I know celebrity culture is here to stay. As my children frequently remind me, ‘It … More
Why we need Aldeburgh
Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More
The woman at the workshop
I am at a thing. Not a famous thing, but an important one nevertheless. People are there, people you and … More
The new poem
The poem and I are best friends. For ever. We hold hands in public and spend every spare minute with … More
Lifesaving Poems 