Living the dream

Or this one. You arrive at the venue early but there is no one there to greet you. You pace … More

Now the silences are right

I am completely torn apart -Rupert Loydell When I first read Raymond Carver’s Fires I loved and understood all of it, … More

I was at a thing recently. Not my thing, a good thing. Luminosity filled the evening. In the pouring of … More

I am at a thing. It is not my thing, it is someone else’s thing. Poets are there. People I … More

[S]everal things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man … More

I have said goodbye to the poem. For a while, a long while, we were not even speaking. After the … More

The poem is not happy. It glares up at me, its eyes spitting fury. ‘How dare you take me in … More

I am being pursued by the poem. It has been there for several years now, asking to be written. I … More

You stick to the routines you have set up, notebook observations, voracious reading, sending the work out to mags, even … More

You’re at a reading, to support a friend. It is not going well. Not your friend, who is quietly stealing … More

The Little Snoring Poetry Group have written to you asking if you would come and read to them some of … More

You go a talk by a Leading Poet. No one you know is there, but still you sit at the … More

I listened to the most wonderful radio programme about failure the other day. It featured Anne Enright talking with clear-eyed … More

My blog post yesterday about the stationery thing provoked more responses than I ever imagined it would. Among the … More

I was very saddened to learn recently of the death of Michael Baldwin, the novelist, poet, writing tutor and former … More

Dear Anthony I’m writing to let you know what you already know in your bones, as you put it much … More

Once upon a time I broke the rules and spoke with another poet (it doesn’t matter who) about a … More

Sometimes I think it’s gone forever -Ken Smith I want to write a poem, Seamus Heaney says, but I have … More