The most fun I have ever seen a poet have at their own reading (with the possible exception of Jackie … More
Tag: Arvon Foundation
Lifesaving Poems: Charles Simic’s ‘My Shoes’
It was the best of times. Jean Sprackland and I were tutoring the dream group at Totleigh Barton for a … More
Lifesaving Poems: Matthew Hollis’s ‘Wintering’
It was the best of times. Jean Sprackland and I were tutoring a poetry course at Totleigh Barton, the Arvon … More
Lifesaving Poems: Sean O’Brien’s ‘Before’
To safe and almost universal silence I published How Far From Here is Home? (Stride) a few days before Christmas in … More
Lawrence Sail’s love
I first met Lawrence Sail at a private view at a gallery just outside Exeter. My family and I … More
Chemo reading
I wrote here recently about losing my ambition as a writer. In case readers are in any doubt, the stuff … More
Lifesaving Poems: Siân Hughes’s ‘Results’
I first encountered Siân Hughes‘s poems sitting around a table with some talented teenage poets at the Arvon Foundation‘s writing … More
Lifesaving Poems: Galway Kinnell’s ‘Saint Francis and the Sow’
I have written before that there are a wide range of reasons for including the poems I have in my … More
Lifesaving Poems: Rutger Kopland’s ‘I Cavalli di Leonardo’
I was sad to read yesterday via Twitter that the leading Dutch poet Rutger Kopland has died, aged 77. He … More