Dear Cancer It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Fifteen years, to be precise. To the day. Amazing to realise it … More
Tag: Blood Cancer
Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)
Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More
Lifesaving Poems: Tom Andrews’s ‘Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital’
Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital 1 The IV drips its slow news. So long, lean and turbulent morning! … More
On Being Chipper
There were just a few of us in the room, gathered round a table. I had been invited to … More
Cured
A Tuesday, appropriately. (Tuesday being the day I was formally diagnosed.) Poetic, it strikes me now. But at the time, … More
#NaBloPoMo 18 – Afterwards
After they left, the house went very quiet. No one really knew about the quietness but me. I played a … More
From the archives: What I have learned about cancer
Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of my diagnosis with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), an aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system. I … More
Tracks, by Tomas Tranströmer
Tracks 2 am: moonlight. The train has stopped out in the middle of the plain. Far away, points of … More
From the archives: Walking into the light
We walked into the brunt light, towards the hospital. The air was dry, February-cold. Traffic was going about its business. … More