Now the silences are right

I am completely torn apart -Rupert Loydell When I first read Raymond Carver’s Fires I loved and understood all of it, … More

This isn’t happening

Don’t forget, this is inside us every day -Stephen Berg This is not happening. It happened. Past tense. One … More

I followed a lead, nudged by a hunch, and it brought me here. The book is In Their Own Words (edited by … More

I was at a thing recently. Not my thing, a good thing. Luminosity filled the evening. In the pouring of … More

My main memory of watching The West Wing is the way Martin Sheen would wrap up discussions with his staff by … More

I am at a thing. It is not my thing, it is someone else’s thing. Poets are there. People I … More

The poem is not happy. It glares up at me, its eyes spitting fury. ‘How dare you take me in … More

You stick to the routines you have set up, notebook observations, voracious reading, sending the work out to mags, even … 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

Dear Ant So you’ve had your first chemotherapy treatment. That first night, when you came home and carried the sick … More

Teachers’ views of creativity is my new research article exploring poetry writing pedagogy. Here is the Abstract: Discourses of creativity in … More

I treated myself to Seth Godin‘s newish book The Icarus Deception recently. It is both dense and light, profound and easy to … More

Sometimes you do not get a poem, or what a poet is up to, straight away. In the case of … More

Here is a revelation: I did not always adore the work of Frank O’Hara. I had pause to consider why … More