One of the fascinating things about blog stats is seeing which posts take off over time and just seem to keep attracting visits. It doesn’t always coincide with the effort it took to write the bloomin’ thing, nor my own expectations! Looking at 2015, here are five of the most popular posts, in case you missedRead more ⟶
Month: January 2016
The Reading List, winding up
First: general ‘how I’m feeling’ stuff, feel free to skip down if you’re short of time Apologies for the silence these last few days. The usual self-employed person’s dilemma of feeling like rubbish and simultaneously wanting to stay on top of work and not let people down. Yesterday I had to leave early from John McCullough’s poetry workshop atRead more ⟶
Ronnie-O Oh Oh!
If you’ve been at a reading I’ve given you may have heard the snooker poem… it’s a bit of fun, my homage to snooker genius Ronnie O’Sullivan. I’m not sure what it adds to the ‘after Christopher Smart’ oevre, but I hope there’s entertainment value to it. It helps to know a wee bit about Ronnie,Read more ⟶
Post-TS Eliot Prize post, and a tale of two gaffes
The first two and a half weeks of January have been a bit of a poetry whirl (in the sense of lots of events) and although I’m now happy I’m a bit exhausted, not to mention in need of a reality-check catchup with, er, work stuff. Last week was the excitement of the T S EliotRead more ⟶
Three small press poetry competition deadlines coming up
Ah! Poetry competitions. Love ’em, hate ’em? It helps when you win something occasionally, admit it. Sadly, the stats are against us, but would we have it any other way? Who wants to be a winner if everyone else is too? And on the subject of probability, I just read that the British state lottery, orRead more ⟶
January – ugh! Thank goodness for poetry events…
As the wind howls outside and the next five-day block of rain chunters towards our heads, I’m feeling very grateful for some poetry relief this dark month. Last Thursday we got things going at the Poetry Cafe in London, for the first Telltale Press & Friends reading of 2016. It was super to hear FaberRead more ⟶
Some inspirational writing & poetry sites to enjoy in 2016
Happy New Year, and welcome to the rest of your life. May it be a long, healthy and happy one. Had a nice Christmas? Glad it’s over now? It’s OK to answer ‘yes’ to both, by the way. I’m in a contemplative mood. It’s great to look out of the window and see just oneRead more ⟶