The fear of poetry -by Muriel Rukeyser

The Fear of Poetry In this moment when we facehorizons and conflicts widerthan ever before, we want our resources,the ways … More

Lifesaving Poems: Margaret Avison’s ‘Twilight’

Twilight Three minutes ago it was almost dark.Now all the darkness is in theleaves (there are no morelow garage roofs, … More

I want to congratulate you on passing this course and achieving QTS in this uniquely difficult and strange year. None … More

One of the privileges of writing this blog is inviting others to write guest blog posts. I have collected these … More

Each Saturday of this LentBlog series I am going to post an old post from my archives. Here is one … More

Waiting for the Barbarians What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. … More

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

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

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

Smith Objectionable, mercurial, fierce, wise, bandaged, solitary and irresistible, Phil Smith and I were not close. Only in our … More

She started as a name. There I was, following my nose, minding my own business, trying to ignore all instincts … More

I feel a great sense of weariness as I look at the current political scene. Domestically, in the UK, we … More

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

The Art of Disappearing When they say Don’t I know you?say no. When they invite you to the partyremember what … 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

Tracks 2 am: moonlight. The train has stopped out in the middle of the plain. Far away, points of … More

The Birkdale Nightingale (Bufo calamito – the Natterjack toad) On Spring nights you can hear them two miles away, calling … More

Dusting the Phone I am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen. I know this is not a … More