And sometimes you don’t know where it comes from. It appears as a heat, prickly, under your skin, your scalp. … More
Tag: Poems
Lawrence Sail’s love
The Lack of You Level as any water, constant as clock-time,the lack of you has occupied the house.It is an … More
When one poet rescues another poet
Deep Third Man(poem for a retired wicket-keeper)That leg-side stumping of yourshangs safe in the memory(if not of the man you … More
Lifesaving Poems: John Burnside’s ‘A Private Life’
A Private LifeI want to drive home in the duskof some late afternoon, the journey slow, the tractors spilling hay,the … More
Lifesaving Poems: Yorifumi Yaguchi’s Praying Mantis
Praying MantisThis morning I saw a malepraying mantis beingeaten by his female.I could almost hear hiswild shout of ecstasyas his … More
Why I miss Robert Rehder
It is odd to speak of missing someone you never met, but this is how I feel about the American … More
Chemo reading
I wrote here recently about losing my ambition as a writer. In case readers are in any doubt, the stuff … More
Losing my ambition
Towards the end of my treatment for cancer in 2006 I had one of the most profound conversations of my … More
Lifesaving Poems: Billy Collins’s ‘Morning’
In February, 1999 I was sitting in a car park with Naomi Jaffa when she asked me what I … More
When poets don’t appear
MorningThe gentleness of secretaries in the morning is somethingto behold. When they are arriving, fluttering through theoffice and settling to … More
On disappearing
I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More
How’s the poetry going?
Sometimes people, including poets, ask me how my writing is going. The difference between a poet and a non-poet asking … More
Lifesaving Poems: Susannah Amoore’s ‘An Upstairs Kitchen’
An Upstairs KitchenIt is strange that I used to thinkthe summers were best in this kitchenhigh in the back of … More
Seven Ways of Reading Gillian Allnutt
Seven Ways of Reading Gillian Allnutt: How The Bicycle Shone: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe; 216pp; £12) 1 It’s … More
Lifesaving Poems: Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘No worst, there is none’
I treated myself to Seth Godin‘s newish book The Icarus Deception recently. It is both dense and light, profound and easy to … More
Lifesaving Poems: Michael Symmons Roberts’s ‘Ultramarine’
Ultramarinefor Philip ArcherLooking for the perfect blue,water to swim in, not through,to fill his sea, his massive bowlof hand-thick bronze … More
On reading poetry to dying people
I want to live – Sharon Olds The most intense reading group I ever belonged to wasn’t really a reading … More
Lifesaving Poems: Kathleen Jamie’s ‘The Way We Live’
Sometimes you do not get a poem, or what a poet is up to, straight away. In the case of … More
