Lifesaving poems of summer

As the summer holiday season takes hold, I am posting an old blog post or two from the archive. See … More

The Year of Living Deeply 16: I have carried it with me each day

I have carried it with me each day, that sense of shame about the fact that I write, that it … More

When I first read and began thinking about The Year of Living Deeply one of my instant reactions concerned the impact … More

I was in a waiting room, having cycled, a bit out of breath, a book on my knee, trying to … More

Rupert Loydell is shouting at the countryside. I have got up at sparrow-fart to drive him to the Blandford … More

Recently I have featured prose writing by various writers, reshaping them in the form of found poems. Annie Dillard on … More

If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we’d live in … More

Sometimes poems aren’t literal representations of anything. Sometimes a poem just exists as something else in the universe that you … More

When I read poetry I want … More

Now that we might finally be getting one, I found myself wondering recently how many of my Lifesaving Poems choices were about … More

Recently I have been reading the exquisite prose of Janna Malamud Smith, in her book-length meditation on creativity: An Absorbing Errand: … More

I am sad because the great American poet Mark Strand has died. Among the tributes to him in the last … More

Now that we have finally had one in the UK, I found myself wondering recently how many of my Lifesaving Poems choices … More

I have been thinking a lot recently about the career trajectory of poets, including my own, whose work briefly becomes visible … More

Last week I read Antony Dunn‘s marvellous essay about his poetics, ‘To Tell You the Truth’ (from In Their Own … More

I fell in love with the poetry of Mark Strand via the enthusiasm of Rupert Loydell sometime in the late … More

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