Another wonderful article from Brain Pickings, this time Rilke on ‘the lonely patience of creative work.’ Solitude and patience are essential to creative work, he says: “Leave to your opinions their own quiet undisturbed development, which, like all progress, must come from deep within and cannot be pressed or hurried by anything. Everything is gestationRead more ⟶
Month: June 2018
Discovering poetry podcasts
I’ve come rather late to the podcast party, although my good friend Lucy has often sung their praises. Before my longish train journey north I decided to finally download a free podcast app (Castbox, which works well on my Samsung Galaxy S6) and then went on the search for some interesting things to take withRead more ⟶
Notes on a poetry residential at Garsdale
I’m back from an inspirational week at the Garsdale Retreat, on a poetry residential course that deserved to be full but wasn’t – if you’ve ever done an Arvon week then I recommend you go to Garsdale for a change. Although the selfish part of me doesn’t want anyone else to discover it, I ofRead more ⟶
UPDATED – list of UK poetry magazines submissions windows
I’ve now done the quarterly update of my PDF list of UK poetry magazines submissions windows, with live links to their submissions guidelines pages. I’ll be emailing the updated list today to everyone who requested previous versions. If you’re not on the mailing list but would like a copy of this one, please drop meRead more ⟶
A forthcoming retreat | writing vs bathroom | Swindon Festival
Retreating Next week I’m off to the Garsdale Retreat for a week tutored by Ian Duhig and guest reader Hannah Lowe. I’m excited by the prospect of a week just focusing on poetry, away from my usual surroundings. The last time I did a residential I was quite traumatised by it, and thought I’d neverRead more ⟶