As I did last year, I will be taking a break from uploading new posts to this blog over August. … More
Tag: Creativity
Except the Americans
As I said recently, I have been moving. Not away, not abroad. But here, within the space that already exists, … More
Guest Blog Post: On Literary Envy, by Robin Houghton
On Literary Envy “Comparison is the thief of joy” –Teddy Roosevelt You wake up one morning. You check in … More
Guest Blog Post: Dear Diary, by Josephine Corcoran
This is the second in a series of Guest Blog Posts that I am hosting this year. More are … More
The missing blog post
after and with apologies to Mark Halliday The missing blog post has gone AWOL. Never sure of its place in … More
Homesick
“A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness. It is a reaching-out toward … More
Inside Lifesaving Poems 4
I have been moving. Not moving house, moving within it. Stuff has come with me, some of it has vanished … More
Open letter to Peter Sansom on reading Careful What You Wish For
Dear Peter Cover-to-cover and back-to-back twice, as I do, once before sleeping, then between zeds on a train woken to Tickets, … More
Inside Lifesaving Poems 3
As I have said before, there wasn’t a plan. Which does not mean I don’t feel the luckiest man alive … More
Lifesaving Poems: Denise Riley’s ‘A Misremembered Lyric’
A Misremembered Lyric, by Denise Riley I heard this poem for the first time a week ago, at the Bodmin … More
Inside Lifesaving Poems 2
Artwork by Angus Joseph Alongside each poem in Lifesaving Poems is a short commentary about how I came across … More
Lifesaving Poems has arrived
Lifesaving Poems has arrived Well, it has finally arrived. The anthology which began life as a blog, which began life as … More
Lifesaving Poems: Juan Ramón Jiménez’s ‘I Am Not I’
I Am Not I I am not I. I am this one walking beside me whom I do not … More
Ted Hughes coming out of the radio
I have been wondering recently if the world of the poem (the one that is currently not-here, just out of … More
The Invisible College
I have just come back from a thing. I am tired. A good afternoon of good conversation about large, important … More
A new poem in support of Mental Health Awareness Week 2015
I am delighted to have a new poem, To Spring, published today at Sarah James’s blog, in With You In … More
The Parable of the Book (free eBook)
For those of you who have been enjoying my series of adventures with ‘the book’, here is a free eBook … More
Nothing to say
‘You’re late,’ the new book says. It is seated at my desk, sleeves rolled up, a mug of steaming coffee … More