Last night saw the launch of Magma 53 at the Troubadour Coffee House in London with guest readers and Lifesaving…
Lifesaving Poems is one year old
A year ago I began the Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts. I got the idea for it after reading…
Lifesaving Poems: George Messo’s ‘The Beautiful Apartments’
As I wrote in my recent post, I chose to call this series Lifesaving Poems because I actually believe…
Lifesaving Poems: Brendan Kennelly’s ‘May the Silence Break’
May the Silence Break Because you do not speakI know the shockof water encountering a rock. Supremacy of silence is…
Lifesaving Poems: Yves Bonnefoy’s ‘Let a Place be Made’
Let a Place be Made Let a place be made for the one who draws near,the one who is deprived…
More Chelsea Than Sunderland
‘More Chelsea Than Sunderland’ was prompted by the remark of a doctor of a friend of mine, when asked to…
The Quiet Room
Six years ago today I was told I wasn’t going to die. Those weren’t the words my consultant used, but…
Lifesaving Poems: Chris Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’
I first heard Chris Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’ sometime in 2005, when I was lucky enough to be part of a…
In Praise of PGCE Students
PGCE students are so dedicated. They burn with desire to be amazing. They hand in their work and have beautifully…
Lifesaving Poems: Elizabeth Jennings’s ‘A Letter to Peter Levi’
As I have said before in the Lifesaving Poems series of blogposts, some poets come into your life through the…
Lifesaving Poems: Patrick Kavanagh’s ‘Wet Evening in April’
Here is what happened halfway through my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in April 2006. I went for a midway scan…
Lifesaving Poems: Andy Brown’s ‘Prayer/Why I am Happy to be in the City this Spring’
I absolutely love this poem by Andy Brown. I am not sure when I read or heard it first. Possibly…
On hearing the word ‘discharge’ for the first time
I never thought I would actually get to hear the word ‘discharge’ at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s…
Lifesaving Poems: On Hugo Williams and Douglas Dunn
I can remember exactly where I was when I first read these poems. It was on the balcony of the…
The Write Team: Creativity, Confidence and Challenge
Yesterday I had the pleasure of giving a talk at the University of Exeter’s CREATEseminar with Emma Metcalfe of Bath…
Kenneth Koch’s Melancholy
I saw the sign above on a wall during a visit I recently made to a school to talk to…
Lifesaving Poems: Sharon Olds’s ‘Looking at Them Asleep’
I found this poem in a collection of poems called The Matter of This World in a second hand…
Lifesaving Poems: Julia Darling’s ‘Chemotherapy’ vs ‘Psalm 102’
I was astonished to find in an old diary today that by 8 March 2006, less than one month after…
Lifesaving Poems 