It is summer for months

It Is Summer for Months Clothes are skimpy and tans are gotwithout flight bags.We saunter beside a canalwhere horses pull … More

Thingless

I am not at a thing. The things have dried up (or I have stopped going). I am thingless. I … More

Thanks to the vision and generosity of Jean Sprackland, between 1999-2001 I had the privilege of working with the great … More

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

I am at a thing. It is my thing, contributing to the thing of others, who I do not know. … More

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

I am completely torn apart -Rupert Loydell When I first read Raymond Carver’s Fires I loved and understood all of it, … More

I was saddened to hear of the death of Gerard Benson last week. A poet and anthologist, he was probably … More

I followed a lead, nudged by a hunch, and it brought me here. The book is In Their Own Words (edited by … More

When Ezra Pound claimed that ‘Poetry is news that stays news’ it is likely he was thinking of Katy Evans-Bush’s Baroque … More

I was at a thing recently. Not my thing, a good thing. Luminosity filled the evening. In the pouring of … More

[S]everal things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man … More

The poem is not happy. It glares up at me, its eyes spitting fury. ‘How dare you take me in … More

Lately I have been pondering the practice of paying attention, vis-à-vis my habit of keeping a notebook to capture impressions, … More

Readers of this blog will know I have been thinking a lot about stationery recently. (Actually, that is something of … More

At the start of each academic year, usually when I have known them for a week or so, I make … More

I was very saddened to learn recently of the death of Michael Baldwin, the novelist, poet, writing tutor and former … More

One of the most powerful performances on my old Faber cassette tape of Ted Hughes reading his poems is ‘Bride … More