Guarding the threshold

‘What will you miss most?’ the book says. ‘About what?’ I say. ‘Me,’ says the book. ‘I didn’t know you … More

Some found poems

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

‘What drives you?’ ‘I’ve only just woken up!’ I say to the book. ‘Don’t care. It’s morning. Work to be … More

‘Aren’t you going get the phone?’ I say. ‘It won’t be for me.’ With a little groan the book … More

The adventures of the book have now clocked up fifty blog posts. Here is a list of all of them, … More

‘Listening to the cricket again?’ says the book. ‘I think I’ll join you.’ ‘What do you mean, ‘again’?’ I say. … More

In the summer of 1986, when he was poetry editor of New Statesman and not long after Writing Home had … More

‘That thing you mentioned the other day,’ the book says. ‘Is it true?’ ‘What thing?’ I say. ‘About there being … More

A Rainy Morning A young woman in a wheelchair, wearing a black nylon poncho spattered with rain, is pushing … More

August 1914 What in our lives is burnt In the fire of this? The heart’s dear granary? The much we … More

Jack Palance: Do you know what the secret of life is? Billy Crystal: No, what? Jack Palance: This [he … More

By Any Other Name First, he called her My Little Aubergine as if she was … More

You say “drone” and I think of bagpipes refrigerators aeroplanes I think of bees a male bee in a colony … More

Advertisement (after Tim Dooley) State-approved cookery books in every emporium of food. Information concerning lipids in dayglow font between … More

A speech given at the NATE annual conference, June 2014 My early poetic experiences were not ‘poetic’ at … More

I think I am probably in love with silence, that other world. And that I write, in some way, to … More