Open call for guest blog posts celebrating the life and work of James Schuyler This November, we celebrate the centenary … More
Tag: Being a Poet
On having allies
I once heard a senior British poet warming to a riff during a reading on the topic of the acknowledgements … More
Advent meditation 3
This time last year, I had begun a third period waiting for a response to a new manuscript of poems. … More
The Wind and the Rain – due in June 2023
I’m delighted to announce that The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, will be published with Blue … More
Not much
What’s been happening? Well, not much. Which is another, deflecting, way of saying quite a lot, actually. So much that … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Job of Paradise, by Roger Robinson
My personal poetry highlight of the summer was listening to Roger Robinson read and be in conversation with Pádraig Ó … More
Lifesaving Lines: History, by Tomaž Šalamun
The other day I bumped into Tomaž Å alamun. I was enjoying the last few hours of walking around Ljubljana, took … More
A new review of Lifesaving Poems… from 2015
A huge shout out and massive thank you to Maria Taylor and her wonderful Commonplace blog, where yesterday I discovered … More
Lifesaving Lines: “Still Do I Keep My Look, My Identity…”, by Gwendolyn Brooks
It was the dying of the light of my time on Twitter. Days when I miss it, I think of … More
Lifesaving Lines: An October Salmon, by Ted Hughes
I walked into the middle of a Ted Hughes poem the other week. An early morning dog walk, like any … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Trees, by Philip Larkin
Early May. Sitting in the bay window upstairs at Cricklewood revising for finals. My pink vest and purple jeans phase. … More
More places of hope
I said here a couple of years ago that Natalie Jabbar’s blog of curated poems each April is like a … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Bluet, by James Schuyler
On a spring day as far from ‘late in dour October’ it would be harder to imagine, James Schuyler’s The … More
Book news for 2023
I am delighted to announce that Blue Diode have accepted my new poetry manuscript and will publish my sixth collection, … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Death of Fred Clifton, by Lucille Clifton
So this is a bit spooky. All week I had in mind these marvellous final words from Lucille Clifton’s poem … More
Lifesaving Lines: Stone, I Presume, by Ian Mcmillan
For several weeks before Christmas I had these words from Ian McMillan’s peerless ‘Stone, I Presume’ rattling around my head. … More
Not exactly good riddance
Just a few hours left of 2021. Time to reflect on what this year has been. Until a week or … More
Lifesaving Lines: What the Living Do, by Marie Howe
Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem … More