In search of beginner’s mind

As I come back to this blog, I am looking to try and inhabit what Zen practitioners call beginner’s mind. … More

RIP Jaan Kaplinski

I was very saddened to learn today that the leading Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski has died, aged 80, of motor … More

The washing never gets done. The furnace never gets heated. Books never get read. Life is never completed. Life … More

There was winter’s cold and moisture in the bedclothes, in the walls and floor, our bodies tired from a … More

Dear Ant Well done for making it to the end of another year and the start of a new one. … More

If you’re not enough without the gold medal, you’ll never be enough with it. – John Candy, Cool Runnings I did not … More

Cups They know us by our lips. They know the proverb about the space between us. Many slip. They … More

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work I … More

Now that we have finally had one in the UK, I found myself wondering recently how many of my Lifesaving Poems choices … More

I am delighted to have two new poems on Josephine Corcoran’s And Other Poems poetry blog. This is where you … More

Seth Godin says in The Icarus Deception that however many good reviews you are lucky to get for your work, it … More

If you’re not enough without the gold medal, you’ll never be enough with it. – John Candy, Cool Runnings I did not … More

In February, 1999 I was sitting in a car park with Naomi Jaffa when she asked me what I … More

Seven Ways of Reading Gillian Allnutt: How The Bicycle Shone: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe; 216pp; £12) 1 It’s … More

In my last blog post I wrote about the influence of social contexts upon one’s reading, specifically that of … More

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