I have not read a book in six months

I have not read a book in six months -Raymond Carver, ‘Drinking While Driving’ I can still remember the shock … More

Now the silences are right

I am completely torn apart -Rupert Loydell When I first read Raymond Carver’s Fires I loved and understood all of it, … More

[S]everal things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man … More

The Book of Things, Ilhan Berk (Salt, 2009), trs. George Messo Open me anywhere § Slugs Pilot Hi V5, … More

The impetus behind this blog is praise. I hope it comes across. I made a vow that I would use … More

I was very saddened to learn recently of the death of Michael Baldwin, the novelist, poet, writing tutor and former … More

Gift A day so happy.Fog lifted early. I worked in the garden.Hummingbirds were stopping over the honeysuckle flowers.There was no … More

My Crow A crow flew into the tree outside my window. It was not Ted Hughes’s crow, or Galway’s crow. … More

Two readings stood out for me in 2013. The first was at an arts centre in the middle of nowhere … More

I’m grateful to you, you see. I wanted to tell you. –Raymond Carver (‘For Tess’) A kind, wise man once … More

I wrote recently about poets who disappear from view, specifically Susannah Amoore, from Faber’s Poetry Introduction 6. My point is far … More

8.06 p.m. June 10th 1970poemTom Raworth (from Jumpstart, ed. Cliff Yates, Poetry Society, 1999) As I say in my previous blog post, … More

What It’s Like To Be Aliveafter Django BatesI remember the nights, and the sounds of the nights,and the moon and … More

I began writing the Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts in May 2010. The idea was to celebrate the poems that I … More

Saint Francis and the SowThe budstands for all things,even for those things that don’t flower,for everything flowers, from within, of … More

ProsserIn winter two kinds of fields on the hillsoutside Prosser: fields of new green wheat, the slipsrising overnight out of … More

Everything is Going to be All Right How should I not be glad to contemplatethe clouds clearing beyond the dormer … More

I have just come back from the Greenbelt Festival where I was delighted to give a talk about writing poetry … More