Influence

I am taking a break from writing brand new blog posts over the summer. Instead of posting new work … More

The blogs I read (3)

Here are some more of my favourite blogs to read. I have put these together (I love them all) because … More

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

The Little Snoring Poetry Group have written to you asking if you would come and read to them some of … More

Twilight Three minutes ago it was almost dark. Now all the darkness is in the leaves (there are no … More

Damp white imprints dog the feet; snowbound trolley, snowbound street. Her tip of glove to lip and cheek, “Goodbye.” Go. … More

I have been thinking a lot recently about final lines of poems. I’ve always been fond of Seamus Heaney’s comment about … More

The Day After I made a leek and potato soup the day after, prompted by the look of the peeled … More

Once upon a time I broke the rules and spoke with another poet (it doesn’t matter who) about a … More

I Am Not I I am not I. I am this one walking beside me whom I do not … More

I became interested in Robert Lowell’s poetry because of the criticism of Seamus Heaney. I had tried reading him before, … More

‘A Lyric Afterwards’ was the poem in which I finally got Tom Paulin. I had been given a tape of him … More

I love watching poets having fun. Think of Don Paterson shooting the breeze with Bill Herbert in the South Bank … More

I can remember exactly where I was when I first read ‘Early Summer’. It was on the balcony of … More

I was lucky. I was taught English in one of those classrooms with complete sets of A Taste of Honey, … More

It was summer. I found myself on the top floor of the library, on the recommendation of a friend: … More

The funniest thing you will ever read about Elizabeth Bishop (or teaching, or anything else) is Mark Halliday‘s essay Moose … More

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