What you read in 2018

Here are my most frequently-read blog posts of 2018, according to my WordPress stats. First, from the Lifesaving Poems … More

The Year of Living Deeply 6: When One Book Leads to Another Book

I have been writing recently about going deeper, not wider. Listening to music I already possess, reading the books already … More

As I was saying the book that I bought and then did not read and which caught my eye recently is Now … More

The Curtain Falls Suddenly a life is over – Ends with such serious charades The Dean makes lame quips … More

Poem Without Sleep All the things that could happen to the baby came to me last night as I … More

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

Reading Frank O’Hara in the Hospital 1 The IV drips its slow news. So long, lean and turbulent morning! … More

In a Church No, no time for this the outside clamours to be heard, the books, you see, … More

Things I Learned at University How to bike on cobblestones and where to signal right. How to walk through doors … More

Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats: … More

In support of crowdfunding our new anthology of poems, No One You Know, with Unbound, Sue Dymoke and I are … More

This is The Power and Potential of Poetry , the talk I gave today at the Somerset Literacy Network annual conference. … More

Today is the last day of NaBloPoMo, that month in the year when someone decides it is a nice idea … More

Try to Praise the Mutilated World Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, … More

I have to be honest and say that, in the light of yesterday’s US Election result, I am tempted to … More

I have begun to acclimatise myself to the fact that the Book is not coming back. To lure it back … More

I turn the radio on and switch it off again, unable to settle to anything. There is still no sign … More

The Half-Finished Heaven Despondency breaks off its course.Anguish breaks off its course.The vulture breaks off its flight. The eager light … More