This was Canada

I was listening to Radio 4 the other day. (You might think this unremarkable, but it was. I still have … More

The jump

But at some point you have to make the jump. How does this work in practice? First I am struck … More

The occupational hazard of going to things where other writers are also present is that they will always at some … More

I do not have brilliant form with Louise Glück. I seem to remember the Poetry Book Society choosing or recommending … More

I can’t write poems in recent weeks either. It’s not the first time it’s happened. And it’s not worth going … More

Timorous or bold are the first three words of Seamus Heaney’s famous (to me) ‘Elegy’ for Robert Lowell. They’ve been … More

Photo credit: Andrew Rumsey This, from a person I have met a handful of times, our dogs nosing each other … More

Somewhere right at the beginning of all this, before the internet, when everything was scarce, not least poetry, a word … More

Like the man Hemingway describes going bankrupt gradually and then suddenly, I realised the other day that I can no … More

I pinched myself to be there. God knows how I got invited. I can’t remember. Perhaps I invited myself. Poets … More

It felt like a good idea at the time. A way to pass lockdown, of trying to ignore the grief … More

It was going to be great. I wrote it more than seven years ago, in two bursts after work with … More

I’ve been thinking of Anne Lamott’s line in Bird by Bird recently, where she talks about the writing life not … More

I don’t make new year’s resolutions. I used to, but not any more. It’s not that I don’t want to … More

Thank you to Tamar Yoseloff for contributing this fourth post in celebration of James Schuyler’s centenary. In Paris last year, … More

On publishing This year I published a book of poems. It is about grief, love and anger. It seems to … More

On waiting I grew up in a house where we were not encouraged to talk about our accomplishments. (I blame … More

Thank you to Pam Thompson for contributing this third post in celebration of James Schuyler’s centenary. James Marcus Schuyler was … More