Lifesaving Poems: Richard Nicholson’s Intense

Intense Look out here comes that bloke with the worn out eyes. He’s always coming ’round here with his talk … More

Letter to a younger poet

Listening to the wonderful array of speakers at the Foyle Young Poets symposium on Monday, I tried to think back … More

This is my hard time -Theodore Roethke The mornings I can cope with. Just. Not grabbing my phone before … More

The book has been working at my desk, which means it looks as though I have been burgled. ‘I can’t … More

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

My Crow A crow flew into the tree outside my window. It was not Ted Hughes’s crow, or Galway’s crow. … More

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

I came across ‘Elegy for Jane’ having found poems by Theodore Roethke in Ted Hughes’ classic anthology of poems and … More

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