I am delighted to announce that I will be launching my new collection, The Wind and the Rain, published by … More
Tag: Poetry
The poetry of Gianluca Vialli
The great Sampdoria, Juventus and Chelsea striker Gianluca Vialli has died, and I am sad. He was 58 and had … More
James Schuyler: Centenary year celebrations
Open call for guest blog posts celebrating the life and work of James Schuyler This November, we celebrate the centenary … More
On having allies
I once heard a senior British poet warming to a riff during a reading on the topic of the acknowledgements … More
What you read in 2022
Here are the blog posts from 2022 that you read most often Lifesaving Lines: The Death of Fred Clifton, by … More
Advent meditation 3
This time last year, I had begun a third period waiting for a response to a new manuscript of poems. … More
The Wind and the Rain – due in June 2023
I’m delighted to announce that The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, will be published with Blue … More
UCU Strike: reflections and resources
Thank you to everyone who stopped by and liked or commented on yesterday’s blog post about the UCU strike action … More
UCU Strike: a list of poems about work
Today was not a normal day of work for me. Instead of teaching my amazing students, I chose to participate … More
Not much
What’s been happening? Well, not much. Which is another, deflecting, way of saying quite a lot, actually. So much that … More
Lifesaving Lines: Pobble, by Heather Trickey
Heather Trickey was a social research scientist, charity worker, Quaker and poet. In 2020, during the first Covid lockdown, she … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Job of Paradise, by Roger Robinson
My personal poetry highlight of the summer was listening to Roger Robinson read and be in conversation with Pádraig Ó … More
Lifesaving Lines: History, by Tomaž Šalamun
The other day I bumped into Tomaž Šalamun. I was enjoying the last few hours of walking around Ljubljana, took … More
A new review of Riddance… from 2013
A huge thank you to Ken Head and Helen Ivory at Ink Sweat & Tears for this review of Riddance … More
A new review of Lifesaving Poems… from 2015
A huge shout out and massive thank you to Maria Taylor and her wonderful Commonplace blog, where yesterday I discovered … More
Lifesaving Lines: “Still Do I Keep My Look, My Identity…”, by Gwendolyn Brooks
It was the dying of the light of my time on Twitter. Days when I miss it, I think of … More
Lifesaving Lines: An October Salmon, by Ted Hughes
I walked into the middle of a Ted Hughes poem the other week. An early morning dog walk, like any … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Trees, by Philip Larkin
Early May. Sitting in the bay window upstairs at Cricklewood revising for finals. My pink vest and purple jeans phase. … More