Aldeburgh Poetry Festival blog posts page

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

UCU Strike Poems 11 -An Horatian Notion, by Thomas Lux

An Horatian Notion The thing gets made, gets built, and you’re the slave who rolls the log beneath the block, … More

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

One of my personal, private highlights of last year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival was a Sunday morning breakfast hosted by The … More

I have so much to be grateful for in 2014. The year began in one of my temporary fits … More

Dan O’Brien began by saying he wasn’t really a poet, but a ‘moonlighting playwright’. Selima Hill took out her glasses, … More

Everyone who enters the stage begins by saying thank you * That silence * Mostly nearly all the time * … More

On the Sunday morning of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival I breakfasted with poets discussing the theme of writing poetry and … More

Early on Saturday morning of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival (Tom Pickard threatened not to get up in time) Robert Seatter … More

By the time you read this I will be far away from here. It has not happened yet, but I … More

Sitting over toast and marmalade with Peter Sansom yesterday morning he said to me: ‘I don’t bother with novels any … More

Reading Thomas Lux’s magnificent new Selected Poems reminded me recently that I first heard his poems before I read them. One of … More

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

Below is a collection of my blog posts for the 2014 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. I will update it as I … More

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost … More

One of the poets I am most looking forward to listening to at the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival in November is … More

Never having succeeded at school, I’ve always thought of poetry as the holidays, not term time. Hugo Williams In November … More

It all started with two remarks, one by a friend, the other by a stranger at work. ß The friend’s … 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

Readers who have followed my Lifesaving Poems series will know by now that there isn’t and wasn’t a plan about … More