Visiting hours

I am visiting the book. We have already been through a lot together, including the part where I killed it and … More

Lifesaving Poems: Denise Levertov’s ‘The Secret’

The Secret Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the … More

On writing and illness

Reading Arthur W. Frank’s astonishing At the Will of the Body  recently has given me pause to reflect on the relationship … More

Open letter to Arthur Frank (on reading At the Will of the Body)

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

Murdering my darling

I have murdered my darling. Like a bird of a certain blue vintage, it is ex, dead, kaput, finished. The … More

After Paris

I found two blog posts especially moving in the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Paris, both by the same … More

Finding Sharon Olds’s The Matter of This World

The Collection The Matter of This World: New and Selected Poems (Slow Dancer, 1987)   I found The Matter of … More

Influences: my first reader

  My first reader was a man called Fergus. A friend of a flatmate at university, I never got to … More

Lifesaving Poems: Chrissy Williams’s ‘The Burning of the Houses’

The Burning Of The Houses Tottenham is on fire and I work in an arts centre where the sky is … More

Cut through

Cut through to what happens when you listen. Cut through to making it happen, listening for it, failing, then doing … More

New Year letter

Dear Ant Looking forward to 2015 it’s tempting to think it will never reach the heights of 2014. Big mistake. Huge. … More

Poetry highlights of 2014

  I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More

The most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014

Here are the most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014. For the first time I have been able to compare last … More

‘When I read poetry’: in memory of Mark Strand

I am sad because the great American poet Mark Strand has died. Among the tributes to him in the last … More

The woman at the workshop

I am at a thing. Not a famous thing, but an important one nevertheless. People are there, people you and … More

The new poem

The poem and I are best friends. For ever. We hold hands in public and spend every spare minute with … More

Mostly all the time nearly everything

Everyone who enters the stage begins by saying thank you * That silence * Mostly nearly all the time * … More

On generosity

By the time you read this I will be far away from here. It has not happened yet, but I … More