I once heard Andrew Motion give a poetry reading at a day-conference for teachers, writers and writers in education. There…
Don Paterson’s ‘Oh God’ moment
The most immediate and forthright analysis of a poem I have seen at any poetry workshop occurred as I passed…
Get out of the house while you can
Dear Ant So you’ve had your first chemotherapy treatment. That first night, when you came home and carried the sick…
Two new poems
I am delighted to have two new poems on Josephine Corcoran’s And Other Poems poetry blog. This is where you…
Bringing each other to perfection
One of the most powerful performances on my old Faber cassette tape of Ted Hughes reading his poems is ‘Bride…
Spun in drafts
Damp white imprints dog the feet; snowbound trolley, snowbound street. Her tip of glove to lip and cheek, “Goodbye.” Go.…
The crying boy at the airport
My wife and I are at the airport of a European capital city. It’s late on a Friday evening, the…
All you have is now
Dear Ant Isn’t it strange, how quickly you notice your passing from one world into the next? One minute…
Teachers’ views of creativity in poetry writing
The third Writing Research Across Borders conference takes place this week in Paris. I will be presenting a poster of…
Walking into the light
We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its…
No rights in this matter
I have been thinking a lot recently about final lines of poems. I’ve always been fond of Seamus Heaney’s comment about…
You’ve got to eat
The Day After I made a leek and potato soup the day after, prompted by the look of the peeled…
A day so happy
Gift A day so happy.Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.Hummingbirds were stopping over the honeysuckle flowers.There was no…
This was just a crow
My Crow A crow flew into the tree outside my window. It was not Ted Hughes’s crow, or Galway’s crow.…
Cancer patients’ reviews of Riddance
Riddance has been reviewed by cancer patients, and former patients, under the aegis of Macmillan Cancer Support. You can find out…
When did I get this?
One year go I celebrated with friends the publication of Love for Now, my journal-memoir of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of…
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…
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…
Lifesaving Poems 