Lifesaving Lines: The Trees, by Philip Larkin

Early May. Sitting in the bay window upstairs at Cricklewood revising for finals. My pink vest and purple jeans phase. … More

More places of hope

I said here a couple of years ago that Natalie Jabbar’s blog of curated poems each April is like a … More

Our tiny minds blown by ‘The Wreck of the Deutschland’, ‘Spelt From Sibyl’s Leaves’ and ‘As Kingfisher’s Catch Fire’, we … More

On a spring day as far from ‘late in dour October’ it would be harder to imagine, James Schuyler’s The … More

So this is a bit spooky. All week I had in mind these marvellous final words from Lucille Clifton’s poem … More

Just a few hours left of 2021. Time to reflect on what this year has been. Until a week or … More

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

Thank you to everyone who has commented to me either publicly or in private about my new series of blog … More

I have been thinking a lot this week about a line from Tomas Tranströmer’s masterpiece, ‘Alone’. (I have also blogged … More

The line that’s been buzzing round my head this week is the final phrase from Michael Laskey’s miracle poem of … More

Recently, my relationship with Wednesdays has changed. It’s quite a long story, and one I don’t want to trouble you … More

The line that’s been buzzing round my head the last couple of weeks is from Robert Lowell’s heartbreaking poem ‘For … More

I was at a thing. Very rarely for me, it was my own thing, only my second in front of … More

Here is a list of various found poems that I have made over the years. Happy holiday reading and looking … More

To continue this season of not, where I have been reposting old blog posts and links to some others, I … More

Though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten hereAnd I will say to you, I will do what I can do … More

There were just a few of us in the room, gathered round a table. I had been invited to speak. … More

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a … More