Sorry

The impetus behind this blog is praise. I hope it comes across. I made a vow that I would use … More

How to submit poems to a poetry magazine

You’re at a reading, to support a friend. It is not going well. Not your friend, who is quietly stealing … More

The Little Snoring Poetry Group have written to you asking if you would come and read to them some of … More

You go a talk by a Leading Poet. No one you know is there, but still you sit at the … More

I listened to the most wonderful radio programme about failure the other day. It featured Anne Enright talking with clear-eyed … More

Lately I have been pondering the practice of paying attention, vis-à-vis my habit of keeping a notebook to capture impressions, … More

Readers of this blog will know I have been thinking a lot about stationery recently. (Actually, that is something of … More

My blog post yesterday about the stationery thing provoked more responses than I ever imagined it would. Among the … More

At the start of each academic year, usually when I have known them for a week or so, I make … More

Sometimes I think it’s gone forever -Ken Smith I want to write a poem, Seamus Heaney says, but I have … More

I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More

The Next Big Thing I have been been tagged by poet and blogger Abegail Morley to answer set questions relating to my memoir … More