Lifesaving Poems: Emily Riall’s ‘Duty Psychiatrist’

Emily Riall will be a new name to many readers of this blog. She was a fine young poet … More

Lifesaving Poems: Rose Cook’s ‘A Poem for Someone Who is Juggling Her Life’

A Poem for Someone Who is Juggling Her Life This is a poem for someonewho is juggling her life.Be still … More

One CigaretteNo smoke without you, my fire.After you left,your cigarette glowed on in my ashtrayand sent up a long thread … More

This is What I Wanted to Sign Off With You know what I’m like when I`m sick: I’d sooner curse … More

W.H. Auden once said that writers should always be honest, even about their prejudices. So here is my confession: when … More

The Journey One day you finally knewwhat you had to do, and began,though the voices around youkept shoutingtheir bad advice–though … More

In September 2006 my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma came to an end. I was not told I was officially in … More

To safe and almost universal silence I published How Far From Here is Home? (Stride) a few days before Christmas in … More

Atlas There is a kind of love called maintenanceWhich stores the WD40 and knows when to use it; Which checks … More

When I began to recover from my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006 this lovely article about Nick Drake’s Northern … More

Colin Mallett, Sculptor The poets I go back to This article first appeared in the North magazine, in November 2007. … More

For the last nine years at the end of the first week in July I have been saying goodbye to … More

I wrote here recently about losing my ambition as a writer. In case readers are in any doubt, the stuff … More

Love for Now did not begin with an idea but an illness. As I have written elsewhere, there wasn’t a plan. I … More

I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More

I want to live – Sharon Olds The most intense reading group I ever belonged to wasn’t really a reading … More

I have written before that there are a wide range of reasons for including the poems I have in my … More

The Next Big Thing I have been been tagged by poet and blogger Abegail Morley to answer set questions relating to my memoir … More