So what do we think of sestinas? A fun exercise? A thankless exercise? A beautiful form best used sparingly? Hackneyed tell-tale sign of creative writing workshop-itis? Should have left it to Dante? I expect I’m not alone in loving word puzzles so I’m tempted to attempt my first sestina. Yes! A sestina virgin! I confessRead more ⟶
Month: February 2013
Ted Hughes on ‘the problem with writing directly of recent experiences’
I’ve just finished reading The Letters of Ted Hughes (Faber 2007 edited by Christopher Reid). There is so much in this book that I’ve found illuminating and inspiring. Yes, there were quite a few detailed accounts of fishing trips which I couldn’t quite get into, and I’m sorry to say a fair bit of theRead more ⟶
Brighton vs Forest: the result
It was hot stuff last night in the basement of the Poetry Cafe. I was just about ready to pass out in the second half and resorted to fanning myself with the folded remains of my poems. But quite apart from the heat (maybe it was only me suffering? must be age), a good nightRead more ⟶
Reading at the Poetry Cafe this evening
Six of us from the Brighton Stanza are reading this evening alongside six Forest Poets (Waltham Forest) in a ‘Stanza Bonanza’. I don’t think it’s a competition, more like a friendly mingling of Stanzas. Anyway we are definitely the away team. And Paul McGrane of the Poetry Society won’t be there supporting his own StanzaRead more ⟶
Gut feeling
Confession: my poem-a-day pledge has stuttered. I’ve actually been a bit ill, although there’s little evidence for it, and if I worked a 9 – 5 job I would have gone home happy on Friday evening and turned up fine this morning. So a weekend illness hardly seems to qualify. And yet on Saturday nightRead more ⟶
Writers and the fear of social media
When talking to writers I meet at workshops and readings, the question of what I do for a living sometimes gets asked. And no sooner do words like ‘internet’, ‘social media’, ‘communications’ etc start popping out than I get stories about how the kids spend all their time on Facebook or their mobile phones, orRead more ⟶
What Ted said when asked ‘what does it mean’
After my recent musings on answering the ‘what does it mean’ question, I was happy to come across this in the Letters of Ted Hughes: To Lydia Clement and Alison George 29 July 1985 Dear Miss Clement and Miss George Thank you for your letter. If I answered your question it might stop you worrying,Read more ⟶
Poem-a-day, Days 3 – 4
Dear Reader For a minute I thought I was struggling already, but the Guardian came to the rescue, or rather whoever it was who posted a link on Facebook to this article, about stealing a line from an existing poem and using it as the basis for something of your own. I had Emily DickinsonRead more ⟶
Setting myself a new challenge
After a chat with a wonderful poet friend yesterday I had a bit of a lightbulb moment (albeit over a couple of beers, funny that). She told me of another poet who had just had a poem accepted by Poetry Review and was over the moon because she had been trying for ages. TryingRead more ⟶
Poems we read and talked about last night
There may only have been four of us at the Stanza reading group last night but we had plenty to talk about. The poems we looked at were ‘Reprimands’ by Michael Donaghy, ‘Calcium’ by Deryn Rees Jones, ‘Substance & Shadow by John Hewitt and ‘A gift’ by Don Paterson. So America, Wales, ireland and ScotlandRead more ⟶