Visiting hours

I am visiting the book. We have already been through a lot together, including the part where I killed it and … More

Lifesaving Poems: Denise Levertov’s ‘The Secret’

The Secret Two girls discover the secret of life in a sudden line of poetry. I who don’t know the … More

Dear Arthur Frank I’m writing to say thank you for your extraordinary book At the Will of the Body. It is … More

Cut through to what happens when you listen. Cut through to making it happen, listening for it, failing, then doing … More

Dear Ant Looking forward to 2015 it’s tempting to think it will never reach the heights of 2014. Big mistake. Huge. … More

Here are the most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014. For the first time I have been able to compare last … More

Ellen Doré Watson was a new name to me until recently. ‘Be Here First ‘ is a good example of … More

Reading Thomas Lux’s magnificent new Selected Poems reminded me recently that I first heard his poems before I read them. One of … More

Well, it’s happening. Happened, I mean. Stuff I thought would last forever -film titles, the actors in them, scenes of … More

I am driving to a thing. Not a famous thing, an out of the way thing. A classroom, perhaps. … More

The Class to the Class of 2014 after Raymond Carver The class with beautiful scarves The class who learned … More

You think it will be about your childhood. It turns out to be about an onion. Or a night in … More

I have finished the thing. People come up to me to say things. It seems to have gone well. While … More

I am at a thing. I have been asked to read a couple of poems. It is not my thing, … More

I am being pursued by the poem. It has been there for several years now, asking to be written. I … More

Having not succeeded at school, I’ve always thought of poetry as the holidays, rather than term-time. Hugo Williams I went … More

Dear Anthony Two cycles down, just six more to go. You are not looking bad, considering. The belligerent doctor who … More

I listened to the most wonderful radio programme about failure the other day. It featured Anne Enright talking with clear-eyed … More