A Blessing in Disguise Yes, they are alive and can have those colors, But I, in my soul, am alive … More
Tag: John Ashbery
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
The Year of Living Deeply 12: Reading the books I already have
So in an effort to live deeply and not widely, amongst other things I have been looking at the shelves … 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
The world expert on John Ashbery
‘What else are you not telling me?’ says the book. ‘Nothing,’ I say. The book rolls its eyes, gives a … More
Mid-January notebook
Barely any bird-life since the gales. A robin’s song this morning, from behind the curtains. And yesterday one tiny blue … More
What you read in 2017
Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats: … More
Not a ‘thin’ year for poetry
It was one of those throwaway remarks made by one writer, male, to another, ditto, in one of those books … More
Mark Strand on reading poetry -a found poem
Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you … More