Lifesaving Poems: Boris Pasternak’s ‘Hamlet’

Hamlet The buzz subsides. I have come on stage. Leaning in an open door I try to detect from … More

After Paris

I found two blog posts especially moving in the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Paris, both by the same … More

The Burning Of The Houses Tottenham is on fire and I work in an arts centre where the sky is … More

Here are the most read Lifesaving Poems of 2014. For the first time I have been able to compare last … More

In preparation for this year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival I was asked some questions about my blogging by Festival programmer Dean … More

The Burning Of The Houses Tottenham is on fire and I work in an arts centre where the sky is … More

I have been asked to judge a thing. A good thing. A serious thing. (But this isn’t about that. We … More

I first heard Thomas Lux’s poems before I read them. In the autumn of 2000 I was sent a tape … More

Photograph © Bloodaxe Books Ltd I am delighted to announce that my Lifesaving Poems series of blog posts has now become … More

I began writing the Lifesaving Poems posts in May, 2011. Below is a list of the twenty most popular poems … More

Here are the text and ppt presentations of my NATE Conference 2014 keynote speech on The Power of Poetry. PDF … More

I met the furniture designer Duncan Kramer at summer camp. Not as kids but as what we laughingly called leaders. … More

I’m talking about real influence now –Raymond Carver This is the first in a new series of blog posts about people … More

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

Locus Scolus: The New York School of Poets is a thing of wonder and beauty. Named after a 1914 French novel by Raymond … 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

Sometimes I think it’s gone forever -Ken Smith I want to write a poem, Seamus Heaney says, but I have … More

Dear Anthony (I will never get used to calling you Tony) Here are some words of advice from your nearing-fifty-year-old … More