Lifesaving Lines: What the Living Do, by Marie Howe

Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem … More

Tired, but

I am tired. Though I write from a place of privilege and of safety, I am tired. Tired of feeling … More

It was one of those throwaway remarks made by one writer, male, to another, ditto, in one of those books … More

Concluding this mini-series of poems I shared in my reading at the Greenbelt festival last weekend, here is Prayer by Marie … More

As I said recently, I have been moving. Not away, not abroad. But here, within the space that already exists, … More

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

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost … More

I began writing the Lifesaving Poems posts in May, 2011. Below is a list of the twenty most popular poems … More

I have not read a book in six months -Raymond Carver, ‘Drinking While Driving’ I can still remember the shock … More

These are the most read Lifesaving Poems posts of 2013. Mary Oliver, ‘The Journey’ I first read this on … More

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

I began writing the Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts in May 2010. The idea was to celebrate the poems … More

The most recent addition to my list of Lifesaving Poems is ‘Prayer’ by Marie Howe. I read it for the first time … More

I was struck by a remark of Seamus Heaney in an interview he gave some years ago now. He was … More