The things themselves

So this is a bit spooky. All week I had in mind these marvellous final words from Lucille Clifton’s poem … More

Twist and reek

For several weeks before Christmas I had these words from Ian McMillan’s peerless ‘Stone, I Presume’ rattling around my head. … More

Just a few hours left of 2021. Time to reflect on what this year has been. Until a week or … More

Call the Midwife What I like in a man: not showing desperate – though that’s what he was. Old enough … More

During December 2019 I blogged a series of poems to celebrate the season of Advent. Some of these were about … More

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

I have been thinking a lot about the poetry of Julia Darling this week. Her work became essential to me … More

Thank you to everyone who has commented to me either publicly or in private about my new series of blog … More

We have a lot of windows. I sit next to them at this time of the year thinking, Just five … More