Oh, but you love writing!

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless many with a crayon in his mouth -Kurt Vonnegut A friend … More

To my fearless guest bloggers

One of the great joys of writing this blog in the last year has been to invite some of my … More

Guest blog post: Strong Heart Songs, by Jo Bell

Anthony often writes that he is ‘at a Thing.’ I go to Things all the time. Poetry World is full … More

To Michael Laskey

Dear Michael I picked up your book the other day and wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying … More

On reputation

It’s complicated. Say you are out and about and want to buy a cup of coffee. I’m not going there, … More

The return of the book

I arrive late back at the house. It is already dark. The usual reassuring things are there: unopened mail, the … More

Mowing the lawn with Maura Dooley

‘There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as … More

Lost notebook

An event of this magnitude Overshadows the destruction of the Berlin Wall And the troubles in the Caucasus. –Robert Rehder, … More

About Maurice

I first met Maurice in the sitting room of a mutual friend, a lifelong Labour supporter, the night after the … More

KBO

‘80% of success is showing up.’ -Woody Allen I was chatting with a student the other day when I said … More

Waiting to be picked

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

What I learned this week

That CK Williams has died. More than two weeks ago! One of my heroes. This is the first thing I … More

Why social media doesn’t create intelligence

Those kind and wonderful people at Change This have just released a new batch of free, downloadable manifestos. These articles … More

Guest blog post: Poetry and Work, by Shawna Lemay

Poetry and Work   I recently took out a book via Interlibrary loan called, The Mind at Work: Valuing the … More

The Creativity Challenge

Below is the text of a PowerPoint presentation that I am giving today at the Directors of Studies Conference 2015, at Port … More

Am I a poet?

A friend recently asked me if I was writing. I replied, as I always do, saying that it was going … More

A day he won’t have

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

Pure distraction

In the rift between what is going to happen and whatever we would wish to happen, poetry holds attention for … More