Answering Back

Seth Godin says in The Icarus Deception that however many good reviews you are lucky to get for your work, it … More

Another look at Tranströmer’s ‘Alone’

I have been thinking a lot recently about Tomas Tranströmer’s poem ‘Alone’. When I first read it I was taken … More

If you’re not enough without the gold medal, you’ll never be enough with it. – John Candy, Cool Runnings I did not … More

In September 2006 my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma came to an end. I was not told I was officially in … More

Seven Ways of Reading Gillian Allnutt: How The Bicycle Shone: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe; 216pp; £12) 1 It’s … More

I came across ‘Elegy for Jane’ having found poems by Theodore Roethke in Ted Hughes’ classic anthology of poems and … More

I first came across ‘Sunday Lunchtime’ in a copy of Sunk Island Review, edited by Michael Blackburn. You can find … More

May the Silence Break Because you do not speakI know the shockof water encountering a rock. Supremacy of silence is … More

With Only One Life Hold with both hands The tray of every day And pass in turn Along this … More