The Rialto: bedside reading for this week at least. Very proud that I have a poem in it on page 50. The Last They’ve been coming since posters were invented: sometimes in dreams, to the tipping of cowboy hats or dressed in Liverpool shirts. Each one appeared in my diary, in code. My mother wouldn’tRead more ⟶
Author: Robin Houghton
Summer holiday – some beautiful places we’ve been
The video of the bees going about their buzzi-ness, the manor house and the waterlilies were taken at Great Chalfield in Wiltshire, an absolutely idyllic National Trust property (hard to find and blissfully free of hordes of visitors). The pic of the large pot was taken in the Orangery at Dyrham Park. The other twoRead more ⟶
Now all roads lead to France
My book group friends aren’t really into poetry. At all. But someone suggested we read Matthew Hollis’s biography of the last years of Edward Thomas, ‘Now all roads lead to France.’ So I’ve brought the book on holiday with me to Wales and am engrossing myself in the detail of the life of a poetRead more ⟶
Writing again after a setback
A few weeks ago I was feeling a bit ‘stuck’ and decided to pay for another ‘Poetry Prescription’ from the Poetry Society. I got the feedback last week and it was less than motivating. Basically my work got sent to the same poet who looked at it last time (I did a ‘PP’ back inRead more ⟶
Ambit at the Betsey Trotwood
Took Lucy along to an Ambit poetry night yesterday at the Betsey Trotwood pub, a little island of old London tahn amidst the chaos and cacophony of Farringdon Road and on the edge of Clerkenwell Green. We weren’t prepared for the evening to start on time, but it did, so we missed a little ofRead more ⟶
Don Paterson interviewed by Maitreyabandhu
Don Paterson from Poetry East on Vimeo.
Poems from the Old Hill
Jeremy Page at the Frogmore Press is producing an anthology of work by poets who live in Lewes called ‘Poems from the Old Hill’ (althought rumour has it that at least one contributor will have moved out of Lewes by the time it’s published – yikes!) Very proud to say I have two poems inRead more ⟶
At the Plastic Bag Museum
these are the things that carried the stuff that people bought see those loops for hands – handles they’re called naturally they never carried boxes the corners would poke through split sides you can see why empties got crumpled thrust into drawers small thin ones used to pick up dogs’ turds the sturdier ones forRead more ⟶
Bumper latest news
Lots been happening lately. Firstly, my good friend and very talented poet Charlotte Gann was shortlisted for the Michael Marks pamphlet award. Although she was pipped at the post it was a wonderful to see her pamphlet The Long Woman make the shortlist for a big prize. Then, I had the chance to take partRead more ⟶
Hurrah! The Rialto takes another
So excited to have had a poem accepted for The Rialto. The first poem I had published was in this magazine (Rialto 70, Autumn 2010) and to say that I was ‘gobsmacked’ would be an understatement… only I’m not allowed to use that word in my husband’s presence as he believes it is an affront theRead more ⟶