Lifesaving Poems: George Messo’s ‘The Beautiful Apartments’

As I wrote in my recent post, I chose to call this series Lifesaving Poems because I actually believe … More

Lifesaving Poems: Brendan Kennelly’s ‘May the Silence Break’

May the Silence Break Because you do not speakI know the shockof water encountering a rock. Supremacy of silence is … More

Let a Place be Made Let a place be made for the one who draws near,the one who is deprived … More

‘More Chelsea Than Sunderland’ was prompted by the remark of a doctor of a friend of mine, when asked to … More

Six years ago today I was told I wasn’t going to die. Those weren’t the words my consultant used, but … More

I first heard Chris Southgate’s ‘High Fidelity’ sometime in 2005, when I was lucky enough to be part of a … More

As I have said before in the Lifesaving Poems series of blogposts, some poets come into your life through the … More

Here is what happened halfway through my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in April 2006. I went for a midway scan … More

I absolutely love this poem by Andy Brown. I am not sure when I read or heard it first. Possibly … More

I never thought I would actually get to hear the word ‘discharge’ at the haematology unit where I was treated for non-Hodgkin’s … More

I can remember exactly where I was when I first read these poems. It was on the balcony of the … More

I saw the sign above on a wall during a visit I recently made to a school to talk to … More

I found this poem in a collection of poems called The Matter of This World in a second hand … More

I was astonished to find in an old diary today that by 8 March 2006, less than one month after … More

To celebrate World Book Day last week I read the poem below, by Thomas Lux, to my students. It … More

This week saw the death of poet and Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szmborska. She was 88. Her compatriot Czeslaw Milosz described … More

With Only One Life Hold with both hands The tray of every day And pass in turn Along this … More

One of the things I love about my job is that I get to co-construct projects with other people. One of … More