I blame the dead

We have been to a thing. Breaking with this blog’s tradition of oblique references to low-level gossip and self-recrimination at … More

On boarding schools and cancer

Two big stories in the media this week, neither of which I wanted to write about, but which now seem … More

On publishing This year I published a book of poems. It is about grief, love and anger. It seems to … More

My dear friend and colleague, the poet, teacher and academic Sue Dymoke has died. Though she had been ill for … More

Next month I will publish my sixth collection of poems, The Wind and the Rain, with Blue Diode Publishing. I … More

I’m delighted to announce that The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, will be published with Blue … More

Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem … More

We have a lot of windows. I sit next to them at this time of the year thinking, Just five … More

Dear Friends Like the closed down (but still creative) shop window of Top Shop I saw on an early morning … More

I don’t want to pretend for a second that it was great. It was full of rawness and grief and … More

Just over a year ago I wrote a blog post talking about my ‘tired frame of mind’ and intention to … More

Here are the blog posts that you read most in 2020 As I click through the links I am surprised … More

Third Sunday in Advent Today I pause from giving you updates from grief’s front line and take a leaf from … More

The Sky Over My Mother’s House It is a July night scented with gardenias. The moon and stars shine hiding … More

Before No shoes and a glossyred helmet, I rodeon the back of my dad’sHarley at seven years old.Before the divorce.Before … More

First There is a holiness to exhaustion is what I keep telling myself, filling out the form so my TA … More

The unexamined life’s no different from … More

The Thing Is to love life, to love it evenwhen you have no stomach for itand everything you’ve held dearcrumbles … More