What you read in 2015

This blog would be nothing without its readers. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, made a comment or a … More

To Michael Laskey

Dear Michael I picked up your book the other day and wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying … More

Be Here First I don’t know my trees but I know my trees. Their angling for what has spurned them; their spitting … More

I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More

Everyone who enters the stage begins by saying thank you * That silence * Mostly nearly all the time * … More

On the Saturday afternoon of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, Festival Director Naomi Jaffa conducted an interew with Adélia Prado, and … More

Sitting over toast and marmalade with Peter Sansom yesterday morning he said to me: ‘I don’t bother with novels any … More

Ellen Doré Watson was a new name to me until recently. ‘Be Here First ‘ is a good example of … More

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost … More

I was struck by a remark of Seamus Heaney in an interview he gave some years ago now. He was … More