Lifesaving Poems interview podcast

This is the link to the podcast of the interview I gave yesterday on the Arena programme, RTE, about … More

Lifesaving Poems: Rosemary Tonks’s ‘The Sofas, Fogs, and Cinemas’

The Sofas, Fogs, and Cinemas I have lived it, and lived it, My nervous, luxury civilisation, My sugar-loving nerves have … More

Artwork by Angus Joseph Alongside each poem in Lifesaving Poems is a short commentary about how I came across … More

The central organising principle of Lifesaving Poems is that each poet is represented by a single poem. There are poets you … More

Cups They know us by our lips. They know the proverb about the space between us. Many slip. They … More

Hamlet The buzz subsides. I have come on stage. Leaning in an open door I try to detect from … More

Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More

By the time you read this I will be far away from here. It has not happened yet, but I … More

Well, it’s happening. Happened, I mean. Stuff I thought would last forever -film titles, the actors in them, scenes of … More

Photograph © Bloodaxe Books Ltd I am delighted to announce that my Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts has now become … More

My friend and colleague Anna Craft has died. She was famous -if that is the right word- as a researcher … More

I am driving to a thing. Not a famous thing, an out of the way thing. A classroom, perhaps. … More

Groundsmen The pile of cuttings puts on dreadful weight, swelters in the season, and leaks treacle. Beside it, the … More

Father’s Day 1970 This is the day my father lets us sleep, then brings us tea in bed. The sun … More

Locus Scolus: The New York School of Poets is a thing of wonder and beauty. Named after a 1914 French novel by Raymond … More

The Sofas, Fogs and Cinemas I have lived it, and lived it, My nervous, luxury civilisation, My sugar-loving nerves … More

I followed a lead, nudged by a hunch, and it brought me here. The book is In Their Own Words (edited by … More

I was asked the other day which poetry blogs I read. Over the next few posts I will be sharing … More