Advent Poems 4: A Little Bit About the Soul, by Wisława Szymborska

A Little Bit About the Soul A soul is something we have every now and then. Nobody has one all … More

Advent Poems 3: In a Time of Peace, by Ilya Kaminsky

In a Time of Peace Inhabitant of earth for fortysomething years I once found myself in a peaceful country. … More

Old Folks Laugh They have spent their content of simpering, holding their lips this and that way, winding … More

Thank you to the heroic bloggers and poets Josephine Corcoran and Robin Houghton for their recentish posts about their desks. … More

I am delighted to announce that my new book of essays Deck Shoes is now on sale. You can buy it direct … More

Paul Brookes at Wombwell Rainbow has posted an interview with me about my reading and writing life, my influences … More

Bike You, who have borne three sons of mine, still bear my weight routinely, transporting me. An odd … More

At a guess I’ve been wearing them somewhere around the last ten years. Not having inherited my father’s genius … More

In 2014 I was invited by the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival to be their guest blogger. I have added the blog … More

One of the privileges of writing this blog is inviting others to write guest blog posts. I have collected these … More

As the holiday season continues I repost this list of various found poems that I have made over the … More

As the summer holidays take over I am re-posting the odd blog post from my archive. To celebrate the start … More

As the summer holiday season takes hold, I am posting an old blog post or two from the archive. See … More

and (Dear James) it occurs to me now, just thinking out loud, that in a way Kenneth and Frank … More

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the ‘poets I go back to’ idea, that I first came across in … More

Dear James (may I call you James?) Though it’s been a while (at least ten years, maybe more) it feels as … More

A line that has really been haunting me recently is ‘Horses turned out into a cold field have it’ from … More

Waiting for the Barbarians What are we waiting for, assembled in the forum? The barbarians are due here today. … More