A Blessing in Disguise

A Blessing in Disguise Yes, they are alive and can have those colors, But I, in my soul, am alive … More

The Year of Living Deeply 7: Another chance meeting with Ashbery

I was in a waiting room, having cycled, a bit out of breath, a book on my knee, trying to … More

So in an effort to live deeply and not widely, amongst other things I have been looking at the shelves … More

As promised last week, here is my presentation of the paper I co-wrote with Sue Dymoke in which we argue on … More

‘What else are you not telling me?’ says the book. ‘Nothing,’ I say. The book rolls its eyes, gives a … More

Barely any bird-life since the gales. A robin’s song this morning, from behind the curtains. And yesterday one tiny blue … More

Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats: … More

It was one of those throwaway remarks made by one writer, male, to another, ditto, in one of those books … More

Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you … More

Being together so much and talking so much and writing poems and showing them to each other so much … More

Joan Mitchell looks to be the only artist of her generation, man or woman, who produced a big, abstract, painterly … More

Directors Chris and Nick Libbey introduce their film of John Ashbery’s poem: In the heart of Minneapolis stands the Irene Hixon Whitney … More

The afternoon was drawing to a close when I knew I had hit the wall. On its own terms there … More

The central organising principle of Lifesaving Poems is that each poet is represented by a single poem. There are poets you … More

Locus Scolus: The New York School of Poets is a thing of wonder and beauty. Named after a 1914 French novel by Raymond … More

It is odd to speak of missing someone you never met, but this is how I feel about the American … More

I was thinking recently about John Ashbery. As I say in my post about my poetry highlights of 2012 one of … More

I have just been asked by Abegail Morley to send her a list of my poetry books of 2012 for … More

I Am a Finn I am standing in the post office, about to mail a package back to Minnesota, to … More

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