So this is a bit spooky. All week I had in mind these marvellous final words from Lucille Clifton’s poem … More
Tag: Frank O’Hara
Lifesaving Lines: Stone, I Presume, by Ian Mcmillan
For several weeks before Christmas I had these words from Ian McMillan’s peerless ‘Stone, I Presume’ rattling around my head. … More
As Planned
As Planned After the first glass of vodka you can accept just about anything of life even your own mysteriousness … More
and (Dear James)
and (Dear James) it occurs to me now, just thinking out loud, that in a way Kenneth and Frank … More
Craving silence
‘So I was thinking,’ the book says. ‘Going anywhere nice for Christmas?’ ’Do you want a lift somewhere?’ I say. … More
Towards a model of poetry writing development
As promised last week, here is my presentation of the paper I co-wrote with Sue Dymoke in which we argue on … 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
Late January notebook
[…] you write because you know them not because you understand them because you don’t you are … More
and (Dear James)
and (Dear James) it occurs to me now, just thinking out loud, that in a way Kenneth and Frank actually were … More
Kenneth Koch on the New York poets
Being together so much and talking so much and writing poems and showing them to each other so much … More
Guest blog post: In praise of Joan Mitchell, by Tamar Yoseloff
Joan Mitchell looks to be the only artist of her generation, man or woman, who produced a big, abstract, painterly … More
Lifesaving Poems: Rosemary Tonks’s ‘The Sofas, Fogs, and Cinemas’
The Sofas, Fogs, and Cinemas I have lived it, and lived it, My nervous, luxury civilisation, My sugar-loving nerves have … 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
All this sitting about in cafés
The Sofas, Fogs and Cinemas I have lived it, and lived it, My nervous, luxury civilisation, My sugar-loving nerves … More
Lifesaving Poems: Esther Morgan’s ‘Avocados’
I heard Michael Symmons Roberts give a magisterial reading from his book Drysalter recently. It was exemplary on so many levels, not … More
Lifesaving Poems:Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘Poem’
The funniest thing you will ever read about Elizabeth Bishop (or teaching, or anything else) is Mark Halliday‘s essay Moose … More
Lifesaving Poems: Frank O’Hara’s ‘Why I am Not a Painter’
Here is a revelation: I did not always adore the work of Frank O’Hara. I had pause to consider why … More
Lifesaving Poems
I was struck by a remark of Seamus Heaney in an interview he gave some years ago now. He was … More