A day he won’t have

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a … More

Go well

I have walked into the grief. I have walked into brave space, mine and others’. I have sat in … More

Dying Nothing to be said about it, and everything – The change of changes, closer or further away: The … More

An artist needs not so much an audience as to feel a need to answer, a promise to respond. … More

I think I need the Other Writer much more than they need me. Off the top of my head I … More

‘It’s even true of Ted Hughes.’ I look across at the book, whose head is now slumped on my desk, … More

‘So is that your main idea?’ ‘That’s it, yes.’ ‘That people get stuff done out of a social need to … More

I had bumped into a friend at the cash machine. We greeted each other, as we always do, with a … More

An artist needs not so much an audience, as to feel a need to answer, a promise to respond. Robert … More

A comment Mark Robinson made in the days following Seamus Heaney’s death in August resonated with me. He said he … More

Love for Now did not begin with an idea but an illness. As I have written elsewhere, there wasn’t a plan. I … More

Last week I read Antony Dunn‘s marvellous essay about his poetics, ‘To Tell You the Truth’ (from In Their Own … More

I have written before that there are a wide range of reasons for including the poems I have in my … More

The Next Big Thing I have been been tagged by poet and blogger Abegail Morley to answer set questions relating to my memoir … More

It is nearly twenty years since I bought Peter Sansom’s Writing Poems. Among that wonderful book’s many delights I found … More

I was struck by a remark of Seamus Heaney in an interview he gave some years ago now. He was … More