Two great lines for the price of one (it is Christmas, after all) this week, from Marie Howe’s extraordinary poem … More
Tag: Reading Poetry
Lifesaving Lines: Autumn, by Roo Borson
We have a lot of windows. I sit next to them at this time of the year thinking, Just five … More
Lifsaving Lines: Alone, by Tomas Tranströmer
I have been thinking a lot this week about a line from Tomas Tranströmer’s masterpiece, ‘Alone’. (I have also blogged … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Day After, by Michael Laskey
The line that’s been buzzing round my head this week is the final phrase from Michael Laskey’s miracle poem of … More
Lifesaving Lines: Poem for Wednesday, by Naomi Jaffa
Recently, my relationship with Wednesdays has changed. It’s quite a long story, and one I don’t want to trouble you … More
Lifsaving Lines: For Sheridan, by Robert Lowell
The line that’s been buzzing round my head the last couple of weeks is from Robert Lowell’s heartbreaking poem ‘For … More
Lifesaving Lines: Fosterage, by Seamus Heaney
I was very saddened to hear of the death of Brendan Kennelly this week. He had been a long-standing presence … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Bight, by Elizabeth Bishop
‘Awful but cheerful’ is the final phrase and line of ‘The Bight‘, by Elizabeth Bishop. I’ve always felt that the … More
Lifesaving Lines: The Gift, by Brendan Kennelly
I was at a thing. Very rarely for me, it was my own thing, only my second in front of … More
Lifesaving Lines: Why We Must Write, by Mark Halliday
I thought of it before I knew I had remembered it. Just the word ‘then’. Rereading and searching at speed … More
New crushes
As I try to hold on to beginner’s mind, I recall the practice of falling in love at a moment’s … More
In search of beginner’s mind
As I come back to this blog, I am looking to try and inhabit what Zen practitioners call beginner’s mind. … More
RIP Jaan Kaplinski
I was very saddened to learn today that the leading Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski has died, aged 80, of motor … More
The blank space
Dear Friends Like the closed down (but still creative) shop window of Top Shop I saw on an early morning … More
When I am Asked
When I am Asked When I am asked how I began writing poems, I talk about the indifference of nature. … More
God’s Grief
God’s Grief Great parentwho must have started outwith such high hopes.What magnitude of suffering,the immensity of guilt,the staggering despair.A mind … More
Praise the Rain
Praise the Rain Praise the rain; the seagull diveThe curl of plant, the raven talk—Praise the hurt, the house slackThe … More
The most popular lifesaving poems
Earlier this year my Lifesaving Poems blog enjoyed something of a milestone. Not as momentous as Jimmy Anderson taking his … More
Lifesaving Poems 