The Fear of Poetry In this moment when we facehorizons and conflicts widerthan ever before, we want our resources,the ways … More
Tag: literature
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
Saying goodbye
I want to congratulate you on passing this course and achieving QTS in this uniquely difficult and strange year. None … More
A new guest blog posts page
One of the privileges of writing this blog is inviting others to write guest blog posts. I have collected these … More
Lifesaving Poems: C. P. Cavafy’s ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’
Waiting for the Barbarians What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. … More
The Year of Living Deeply 13: Reading the books I already possess
As I was saying the book that I bought and then did not read and which caught my eye recently is Now … More
Lifesaving Poems: Carrie Fountain’s ‘Poem Without Sleep’
Poem Without Sleep All the things that could happen to the baby came to me last night as I … More
What you read in 2017
Dear Friends Here are the blog posts which you read most often in 2017, according to my WordPress stats: … More
Smith
Smith Objectionable, mercurial, fierce, wise, bandaged, solitary and irresistible, Phil Smith and I were not close. Only in our … More
#NaBloPoMo 5 – Michael Longley interview with Krista Tippett
I feel a great sense of weariness as I look at the current political scene. Domestically, in the UK, we … More
Guilty
I have begun to acclimatise myself to the fact that the Book is not coming back. To lure it back … More
The Half-Finished Heaven, by Tomas Tranströmer
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, by Tomas Tranströmer
Tracks 2 am: moonlight. The train has stopped out in the middle of the plain. Far away, points of … More
Open letter: in memory of Janet Fisher
And though I only met you once, your influence on me is massive, or should that be was I don’t … More
Alone, by Tomas Tranströmer
Alone I One evening in February I came near to dying here.The car skidded sideways on the ice, outon the … More
No one you know
‘You look upset.’ ‘I am upset,’ I say. ‘Well, not so much upset as disappointed.’ ‘Want to talk about it?’ … More
Lifesaving Poems: WN Herbert’s ‘The Black Wet’
Continuing in this mini-series of poems I shared in my reading at the Greenbelt festival last weekend, here is The … More
Lifesaving Poems: Sharon Olds’s ‘Looking at Them Asleep’
Continuing in this mini-series of poems I shared in my reading at the Greenbelt festival last weekend, here is Looking … More