The Little Snoring Poetry Group have written to you asking if you would come and read to them some of … More
Category: Writing
How to enter a poetry competition
You go a talk by a Leading Poet. No one you know is there, but still you sit at the … More
To failure!
I listened to the most wonderful radio programme about failure the other day. It featured Anne Enright talking with clear-eyed … More
The stationery thing again
My blog post yesterday about the stationery thing provoked more responses than I ever imagined it would. Among the … More
The real test of a poem
I was very saddened to learn recently of the death of Michael Baldwin, the novelist, poet, writing tutor and former … More
By the way, you live
Dear Anthony I’m writing to let you know what you already know in your bones, as you put it much … More
One poet talking about another poet
Once upon a time I broke the rules and spoke with another poet (it doesn’t matter who) about a … More
No poem to write
Sometimes I think it’s gone forever -Ken Smith I want to write a poem, Seamus Heaney says, but I have … More
The fame question
When I visit schools to read and talk about poetry there is often some sort of Q and A following … More
Lifesaving Poems: Dave Smith’s ‘Reading the Books Our Children Have Written’
I once heard Stephen Knight say ‘If I am reading well then I am writing well.’ It was a Q … More
Why I miss Robert Rehder
It is odd to speak of missing someone you never met, but this is how I feel about the American … More
Why it’s called Love for Now
Love for Now did not begin with an idea but an illness. As I have written elsewhere, there wasn’t a plan. I … More
The Write Team: Creative Writers in Schools
The Bath Festivals‘ Write Team was a creative writing project designed to develop pupil confidence and engagement in their learning. The … More
On disappearing
I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More
How’s the poetry going?
Sometimes people, including poets, ask me how my writing is going. The difference between a poet and a non-poet asking … More
When they told me I would live
Nine days after I was told that my chemotherapy treatment was not working in April 2006 the doctors discovered the … More
Lifesaving Poems: Tom Raworth’s ‘8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970’
As I say in my previous blog post, I owe my knowledge of ‘8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970’ to the … More
On Twitter
I have published a new poem in the style of Kenneth Koch, On Twitter, at Ink Sweat & Tears. Whether … More