Sideswiped by poetry

And sometimes you don’t know where it comes from. It appears as a heat, prickly, under your skin, your scalp. … More

Lawrence Sail’s love

I first met Lawrence Sail at a private view at a gallery just outside Exeter. My family and I … More

I came across Hubert Moore’s fantastic book of poems The Hearing Room (Shoetstring, 2006) via my friend and neighbour Lawrence Sail. In … More

I found John Burnside‘s ‘A Private Life’ in a poetry magazine some years ago. I wasn’t much interested in … More

Readers who have followed my Lifesaving Poems series will know by now that there isn’t and wasn’t a plan about … More

June 30, 1974 for Jane and Joe Hazan Let me tell you that this weekend Sunday morning in the … More

It is odd to speak of missing someone you never met, but this is how I feel about the American … More

In February, 1999 I was sitting in a car park with Naomi Jaffa when she asked me what I … More

I have been thinking a lot recently about the career trajectory of poets, including my own, whose work briefly becomes visible … More

Yesterday I wrote here about poets disappearing. Partly this came to mind via news of Salt’s decision to discontinue publishing … More

Seven Ways of Reading Gillian Allnutt: How The Bicycle Shone: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe; 216pp; £12) 1 It’s … More

I treated myself to Seth Godin‘s newish book The Icarus Deception recently. It is both dense and light, profound and easy to … More

I came across Michael Symmons Roberts‘s ‘Ultramarine’ during a stint as poetry editor for Third Way magazine. Like nearly everything … More

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

Seven years ago this is what happened halfway through my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I went for a midway scan … More

Sometimes you do not get a poem, or what a poet is up to, straight away. In the case of … More

One of the pleasures of being alive is reading John Ash. Think of a prize-winning poet, someone you think of … More

Apart from e e cummings and the genius Anon, one of my chief discoveries in the Voices and Junior Voices series that I … More