Bloggers – Page 2 – Robin Houghton

Angst/ 14/10/2014

Dealing with Literary Rejections: Six Viewpoints

I was asked yesterday ‘how’s the writing going?’ which is always an interesting one to answer. First you have to gauge if it’s a genuine enquiry, or a generic ‘how’s things?’ A non-writer friend probably doesn’t want to hear a long moan about rejections. But submissions, and in particular rejections, is one of the unavoidable and recurrent themes of a writer’s (certainly a poet’s) life.

For me, the problem starts with the word ‘submission’. It’s so, well, so passive. To submit is to rollover onto your back like a cat with its claws retracted, begging for attention. It just ain’t dignified.

There are thousands of articles and blog posts about dealing with literary rejections. And can we get enough of them? I don’t think so, judging by the social media indicators. I’m not the only one to be fascinated by how others deal with the rejection game. I’m just as fascinated to know how the rejectors deal with it too. There are two sides to it, but perhaps it’s easy to forget that when you’re the submissive party.

Here are six viewpoints on rejection that I’ve enjoyed. You have to read them to get the full stories, but I’m giving you a flavour.

“No Thank You” – On Rejection and Writing by Chuck Sambuchino in Writers’ Digest. “You can’t please everyone, and the moment you try, you cease to write anything interesting.” Chuck runs with the idea that all rejections are subjective, and you can rationalise them all you like but ultimately you just have to deal with it and not let it unsettle your writing.

Rejecting Rejection by E Kristin Anderson at The Writing Barn. Rejection slips are just part of the submissions game – there are no acceptances without rejections along the way. “You can’t win if you don’t play.”

“Never Give Up” — or How One Writer Got Published in Poetry Magazine After 12 Rejections at the Bookbaby blog, Chris Robley tells the encouraging tale of poet Todd Ross who was eventually published 15 times in Poetry magazine, despite his previous 12 rejections by same.

Submission, Rejection, Acceptance, Reward by Roy Marshall. Paying attention to the detail of cover letters and appreciating the ‘good’ rejections can bring some comfort. “Once or twice I’ve felt less pleased by an offhand acceptance than by polite and careful rejection.”

Ten Levels of Rejection (and What to Do About Them) – Nathaniel Tower takes a close look at the exact wording of rejections and draws some biting conclusions. “Not all rejection is equal.” Great to see the ‘passive aggressive’ rejection (beloved by certain publications) finally unmasked! (Number 4)

And finally, Robert Peake gives some soothing advice in What Should You Learn from Rejection Letters? at ReadWritePoem. “The very fact of rejection is insufficient grounds to conclude your that poems are terrible, that you are a terrible poet, possibly a terrible person, and that giving up writing for good would be a service to humanity.” Oh we hope not, Bob, we hope not.

Comic strip copyright Peanuts.com

Bloggers/ 06/10/2014

Back from Swindon Poetry Fe(a)st

I must stop trying too hard with blog post titles. What’s with the ‘fest’/’feast’ thing? Stop me, somebody.

Anyway, I’m now musing on a weekend in Swindon, not a place I’ve ever had strong feelings about, I confess, but clearly a place where poets settle and are proud of. The indefatigable Hilda Sheehan and her team worked hard all weekend, and the atmosphere was one of laid-back fun and a definite hippy vibe. Workshops and readings took place at Lower Shaw Farm, which looked like the set from ‘The Darling Buds of May’ with a bit of fruit-picker-style accommodation thrown in. It’s clearly a secret place – without the help of sat-nav I found myself in estate cul-de-sac hell for some time before I found it on Friday afternoon. One attendee came by taxi and admitted the driver had never heard of it. “What happens here?” he asked nervously, as if expecting the reply “oh, cooking with cheesecloth, tantric sex and ritual sacrifice.”

Over the two days I enjoyed hearing readings from Kathryn Maris, who turned out to be none other than Maurice Riordan’s ‘willowy companion with the ombre hair’, Maurice Riordan, Alison McVety, Don Share, David Morley, Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton and the prize winners in the Battered Moons poetry competition. I also took part in a short workshop led by Cliff Yates and a day-long masterclass with Don Share (more on this in a separate post). It was great fun to meet some people I’ve only known via this blog or social media, or just by reputation: Cliff Yates, Judi Sutherland, Alison Brackenbury to name but three, and to catch up with blogging buddy Josephine Corcoran and editor of The Interpreter’s House Martin Malone.

One thing I really enjoyed about the evening readings was the music element – on Friday we were treated to Don Share reading to a musical backdrop from some fine musicians doing jazz improv. It could have been the sixties, but without the marijuana, the greasy hair or the loon pants. Then on Saturday, to complement the Battered Moons competition readings, there was a wonderful performance of flamenco guitar from a chap whose name escapes me (what a shame) and Cristina Newton mesmerised us with her dramatic and moving reading interspersed with some Romany singing. This photo doesn’t do her justice. She has a wonderful singing voice. Fire and beauty.

Although it rained on Saturday morning, in the afternoon the skies cleared and we had a wonderful walk up at the White Horse at Uffington.

Robin Houghton & Josephine Corcoran — With Josephine

And so to Sunday, and our day with Don Share. So much great stuff came out of that, so I’m going to write a separate post with as many tips, stories and Don-isms as I managed to jot down.

Bloggers/ 21/05/2014

Poets’ blogs – some recent finds

It’s been a while since one of my ‘three great blogs’ roundups, usually on a theme. The last couple of months I feel like I’ve lived and breathed writers’ blogs, and the experience has reminded me yet again how many great and well-established blogs still haven’t hit my radar. Even more so when I read Anthony Wilson’s recent ‘blogs I read’ series of posts. It’s all happening out there.

One of the things about being on WordPress or Blogger is that it’s much easier to follow and link to others on the same platform. Being on WordPress I notice how easy it is to hit the ‘follow’ button on a WordPress site and then see it in my Reader, or opt for a weekly digest. Other blog platforms sometimes offer a ‘follow by email’ option, otherwise I usually copy and paste the URL, open my WP Reader and paste them in. I then don’t have the option of email updates. This is a tad unwieldy and YES I know it would be far easier to use Feedly, which I did use to, until Google pulled the plug on Google Reader and I lost all my subscriptions. (Mea culpa, I was given notice but left it too late.)

Anyway – sorry – back to the point, which is that I don’t tend to see a lot of Blogger blogs unless I look for them, and on the occasions I do come across one, such as Vanessa Gebbie’s blog, it then leads me to a rich seam of others. Vanessa is a well-known poet and author who’s on my manor, so I’m amazed I’ve never explored her blog before. She provides a textbook example of how to vary your blog posts, inform and entertain at the same time. Vanessa doesn’t blog to a strict timetable but when she does it’s a very nice mix of interview, reviews, news-musings and other quirky material.

From there I was pulled into Kate Dempsey’s Emerging Writer blog and found a trove (is that actually a word?) of info about competitions, submissions opportunities, events, reviews and all kinds of good stuff with an Irish bent (another question mark over this word) – a horn-of-plenty type blog spilling over with news.

And my third find from Vanessa’s blogroll was Rachel Fenton’s blog snow like thought. I’ve only just started exploring this one as Rachel is in New Zealand, and it’s funny how it takes me a while to adjust to blogs from other countries. Strange, isn’t it? The internet is said to remove national boundaries, we can hop from one continent to another in a click, but I often still feel jetlagged and culture-shocked when I first land on the pages of a ‘foreign’ blog. I don’t mean that in a bad way – I’m kind of blinking and trying to take in the unfamiliar references and it feels like the time I arrived in Perth in the Spring, after leaving home the day before in Autumn. But I’ve already followed a couple of links to yet more unfamiliar American poetry journals … I sense there’s another blog post entirely there.

Bloggers/ 03/04/2014

On blogging, writing and giving myself time

Yesterday was the first session of a ‘Build your social web presence’ course I’m teaching at New Writing South, and the common question of how does one find the time to blog came up. Fellow bloggers, how would you answer this? Do you set time aside to blog, or just fit it in when you can? Do you have a schedule, or simply blog when you’ve got something to say?

As we talked about it, I said that actually not only do you find the time, you enjoy finding it – and that blogging and tweeting has helped improve my writing and my writing process. (I suppose it’s not always the case – it depends whether you’re blogging on a topic you feel strongly about. I’ve blogged on behalf of clients in the past and it’s not always easy to find enthusiasm for pallets or lanyards.)

Although it’s not a great idea to stop blogging for months on end – it might look like you left the country, or the world – I don’t think it’s worth stressing about things like how often, or how long a post should be, etc. But we all like rules, even if they’re rules of thumb.

I’m really enjoying writing this current book, a handbook on the theme of ‘blogging for writers’. Already I’ve made contact with many brilliant writer-bloggers and it’s great fun pulling together all the wisdom and ideas out there. I’m two-thirds of the way through and on target to deliver the bulk of it by Easter. After that … another book! So it’s all about blogging at the moment.

BUT I’m making time for poetry too. I’ve been thinking about how I need to step back a bit from submissions-fever and spend time working on (DUH) writing better poetry. Just chill out a bit. Take my time. Read the greats. Resist reaching for the notebook or getting on the laptop. Enjoy the writing I am doing, even if it’s not poetry. This is a very new feeling for me, and I can only put it down to the joy of having created a pamphlet and a permanent home for my ‘first wave’ poems. All my ideas now are not ‘poem shaped’ but ‘collection shaped’, which feels more substantial and worth taking time over.

Bloggers/ 24/02/2014

‘My Writing Process’ Blog Tour

Morning! It’s time for a little blog tour… the lovely Jayne Stanton invited me to take part in the ‘My Writing Process’ tour (or ‘meme’ in internet parlance). There must have been thousands of writers already taken the tour. The idea is to answer the same four set questions, then to nominate three more writers to take up the challenge.

1) What am I working on?

I’ve recently been commissioned to write two books about blogging. The first is a kind of sister publication to ‘Blogging for Creatives’ which was published in 2012, but this time it’s Blogging for Writers. Naturally this is right up my street! But, like with the first book, there’s a heck of a lot of research to be done, experts to be contacted and images to be found, on top of the actual writing (which is the easy bit). And I now have just 8 weeks to deliver, so it’s full-on.

On the poetry front I’ve just started by own small poetry imprint, Telltale Press, mainly to publish my own short first pamphlet, but also (I hope) to do the same for other poets. Still working out the details, but my own pamphlet should be out within a few weeks. My poetry writing is a bit in the doldrums at the moment. But that’s OK, it’ll come back.

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I suppose I need to answer this in regard to my commercial writing and poetry, separately. When I was writing essays at Uni many years ago, a tutor remarked ‘I like your clear, textbook style.’ That comment stayed with me and I’ve consciously tried to develop this ability over the years. As a result I’ve had a lot of success with copywriting – especially when it comes to putting the technical into plain English and empathising with the audience’s thought processes. It’s also helped me in devising and delivering training and mentoring. Let’s break it down, look at it another way, that sort of thing.

Poetry of course is another matter. If anything I have to fight against the instinct to explain, to set the scene…maybe that’s one reason why I enjoy it. Poetry feels like the ultimate challenge for a writer. Does my poetry differ from others? Probably not. Like many people, I can write competent poetry that very occasionally has a magical spark (together with a fair bit of stuff that has no merit at all). But there are so many wonderfully original and surprising poets out there, and I’ve got a long way to go before (or even if) I reach that standard. If anything I would say I probably need to let go more and not be so controlled by rational/analytic thoughts.

3) Why do I write what I do?

Commercial writing: I write about whatever interests me, but I suppose I fell into the blogging books from having been an internet marketer for so many years, since the 20th century actually! And before that I was a corporate marketer on the international rat run. I discovered the internet in 1997, learned HTML in 1998, did an MA in Digital Media in 1999 and reinvented myself as an internet bod.

Poetry: a combination of the usual things that inspire poets (life’s big questions) and a love of manipulating language. I love jigsaws, puzzles, sudoku… I enjoyed maths at school as much as English… I see poetry a little like a creative extension of all that. Like a lot of people I started writing poetry at school, but despite encouragement from lovely English teachers I was determined to think everything I wrote was crap. I still think this was probably true, but I wish I’d had the confidence of youth to at least give it a go. But it wasn’t until I was settled and contented and in my 40s that I decided to take poetry seriously. Suddenly there was a heck of a lot of reading to catch up on and it was (and still is!) a steep learning curve.

4) How does my writing process work?

I’m pretty organised. When it comes to commercial work I rely on spreadsheets, time and word count calculations, and to do lists. I enjoy filing and try to keep well on top of deadlines. I’ve never missed a deadline – I was one of those kids who even at university would always finish tasks well ahead of the due date, and I never ran out of time in exams.

With poetry, again I keep good records of submissions, but I admit I’m a bit ramshackle as regards keeping notes and writing down ideas. Many things fly away before I have a chance to nail them down. I get a bit frustrated when I do have the time to sit and write, and nothing at all worthwhile comes to mind. But again, that’s part of the challenge.

I go to workshops because I do find feedback valuable, and I don’t mind doing exercises and having writing prompts but I wouldn’t seek them out. I’ve rarely had any useful inspiration come from prompts or exercises. I have more luck if I just stop trying to write and go read instead. Reading fine poetry before going to sleep can work well for me. Part of me thinks if I read enough good stuff it will rub off on me somehow. When I do actually write something, it might go through many revisions over several months or even years before it’s published, but on the other hand I’ve had a few notable successes with pieces I’ve literally written in one sitting with very little editing. Bizarre.

Next Monday, please check out the following writers/bloggers and their answers…

Abegail Morley of The Poetry Shed
Abegail Morley’s first collection, How to Pour Madness into a Teacup was shortlisted for the Forward Prize Best First Collection. Snow Child (2011) and Eva and George: Sketches in Pen and Brush (2013) are published by Pindrop Press. She has a collection forthcoming from Eyewear Publishing and is co-founder of EKPHRASIS.

Cathy Bramley
Cathy Bramley is a writer of romantic comedy. She lives in Nottingham with her family and is a fan of Polish cherry vodka, chocolate brazils and Marian Keyes novels. Her debut, Conditional Love achieved a little ‘best-seller’ flag from Amazon and her next novel will be published in April. You can usually find her wasting time on Twitter @CathyBramley or on Facebook.

E.E.Nobbs
E.E. Nobbs (Elly) won the 2013 Doire Press International Poetry Chapbook competition. Her first book – The Invisible Girl – is hot off the press. She lives in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Bloggers/ 14/02/2014

Three more interesting blog discoveries

Greetings from the Sick Bay. I’ve been a bit quiet this last week due to a touch of flu (mostly) and the advent of one or two new projects (partly). More on the projects soon.

Meanwhile this is the latest in a series of ‘interesting poetry-related blogs I’ve recently come across’ posts. Trying to stick to a particular theme (poetry and gardening, or whatever) proved a bit hard to sustain, so here are three random blogs in no particular order.

I found Verbatim Poetry via a link on Facebook, I think. Put simply, it’s a blog featuring found poetry. Editors are Gabriel Smy and Marika Rose. They welcome submissions and there are some very useful guidelines on ‘How to Write a Verbatim Poem’.

I’ve not written any found poetry, but I’ve sometimes felt I’d like to put together all those station announcements about reporting suspicious bags, delays and trolley services, ending with ‘would the conductor please contact the driver’ which for some reason always makes me laugh. One day maybe.

Then we have Sheenagh Pugh’s blog, with the unlikely title of Good God! There’s writing on both sides of that paper. I kid you not. I was pulled in by this thoughtful piece about titles and the job they can do, but soon discovered a rich seam of well written articles.

What I like about Sheenagh’s style is that she shares her knowledge and opinions, often with examples, in an open and interested way, without either patronising her readers or going off on a rant. My only issue with this blog is that’s on LiveJournal, a Russian-owned blog platform which doesn’t appear to be very social media friendly. But the content is pure gold.

Mark Richardson teaches literary criticism and lyric poetry at a university in Kyoto, Japan. As you might expect, his blog The Era of Casual Fridays is not for the faint-hearted. Mark describes the blog as a taking the form of a commonplace book, devoted to literature and ‘with comment, often lengthy.’

Now my attention span on blogs isn’t always the greatest, so it was with trepidation that I started out on ‘What I want (as a teacher of lyric poetry)’. Using a specific poem as example (Church Monuments by George Herbert), Mark takes us on a trip from Heidegger to Hardy, from Emerson to Foucault, in an exploration of what is expected of students when it comes to literary criticism.

Now and again students ask me whether it is okay for them to offer “their own interpretation” of a poem. By which they sometimes appear to mean: “Isn’t one interpretation finally as ‘good’ as any other?” By which, on occasion, they almost certainly mean: “Do you think it is possible for me to be ‘wrong’ in what I say about a poem?” To which my reply is: “Yes, it is certainly possible to be wrong in what we say about a poem—sometimes, very wrong.”

Mark goes on to explain and defend in detail what he means by this. I found it fascinating and despite not being familiar with all the references, yes – definitely worth reading to the end.

Angst/ 20/01/2014

Where blogging fits into the writing week

Pages from primary school rough book — Aged 10, my note-taking habit had begun

How does your writing week look? Mine can typically include things like

blog posts
a client email newsletter
a lot of emails (sent and replied to)
poetry writing/redrafting/editing
commenting on blogs
client work: proposals, meeting reports, web or brochure copy, etc
an email newsletter for one of my groups (poetry or singing)
a guest piece for a magazine or blog
a chapter for a (non-fiction) book, if I have a book project on the go
cover letters
various lists/notes etc for myself
tweeting etc

– it adds up to writing every day, even though when asked how much time I spend on writing I tend to um and ah or say ‘not as much as I’d like’ because of course I’m thinking of poetry writing – you know, the really creative stuff.

This morning I’d been thinking about blogging and the purpose(s) of blogging. Then I encountered Josephine Corcoran’s interesting and timely post about ‘why blog’ (in relation to poetry blogging in particular).

Blogging isn’t for everyone. I regularly meet people who, if they find out about my blog, aren’t sure what to make of it, as an activity. But sometimes they admit they too have a blog, but ‘haven’t posted for a while’ or else they’ve been ‘meaning to blog’ but are struggling either to find the time or the ideas of what to write about.

When people come to me for mentoring, if I think blogging would benefit them, I suggest it. But it’s one of those awkward chicken-and-egg things: until you start blogging and you reach that moment of ‘getting it’ (which is usually tied up with the community aspect of blogging – see Josephine’s post), it can feel like a chore. Or worse, a worthless or self-indulgent activity two steps removed from bragging and the slippery slope towards staring at one’s reflection in a pond.

Community is a big part of blogging – after 15 years I’m still amazed who you meet on the internet and I’ve always believed (from personal experience) that connections made online can be every bit as strong as those made ‘in real life’. And the wonderful thing is that it’s still mostly fuelled by the written word.

So to follow on from Josephine’s post, my feeling is that blogging helps my writing, because it is writing. It’s part of my writing life – just as is everything else that goes into the writing week, except on a blog I give myself permission to use cliches, make (sort of) jokes, say LOL or whatever else grabs me. I give myself permission to make mistakes, try out new ideas, ask questions, come across as a bit naive or opinionated or whatever. I give myself permission to write without drafting, or re-drafting, or planning, or reaching for the thesaurus, or (much!) editing. To write 200 words or 2,000 words. It’s my ‘sandbox’ I suppose. It doesn’t mean I’m totally unguarded, but I’ve noticed how people appreciate openness, so I think it’s a good thing to aim for. It’s probably an antidote to all that sales/commercial writing that invades our space (bits of which I’m responsible for – sorry!)

What do you think – does blogging flex our writing muscles, or does it just take us away from, well, proper writing?

Bloggers/ 08/01/2014

Two exciting discoveries (new to me, anyway!)

There I was, just noodling about on the internet, when what should I find but not only a wonderful blog and poetry resource but also a poet who I’d never heard of but whose work immediately excited me.

First of all, thanks to a Facebook update by Antiphon magazine* I followed a link to an excellent and timeless post on putting together a manuscript, on Jeffrey Levine‘s blog. Jeffrey is a poet, author, publisher, critic, mentor – you name it – and his blog is a powerhouse of articles that you just want to read and absorb RIGHT NOW – rather like Neo being injected with knowledge in The Matrix: “I know Kung Fu!” – he he.

Then I started following links to US poetry magazines, submissions policies, prize competitions (there seem to be a shedload of those going on at any one time in the US, or is that an illusion? Many seem to have entry criteria to do with age, residency or publishing history or whatever, but there are plenty open to international poets.)

Next, I looked at featured poets, prize winners and so forth, and googled their names. I followed several lovely detours before coming upon Allan Peterson. Here’s ‘Implicit’, a new poem by him in The Believer magazine. Love it, love it, love it. And then on to his own website, which sets out his monumental writing achievements under the modest ‘Resume’ tab. There are a few poems on the site too, such as ‘Confession’. I could hardly buy a copy of his most recent book, Fragile Acts, quickly enough.

If Jeffrey Levine and Allan Peterson are familiar to you, you may be thinking ‘she’s just discovered them? – oh DUH!’ and I probably look like a bit of a noob. Oh well! One man’s thrilling discovery is another’s same-old!

*PS another reason for me to thank Antiphon is for publishing one of my poems in their latest issue (9) alongside many fine poets, do take a look

Bloggers/ 06/01/2014

The year that was, plus a T S Eliot Prize-themed workshop

So many good end-of-year review-type blog posts in the last week or so. A few I particularly enjoyed:

Anthony Wilson’s ‘Most read life-saving poems in 2013’ which gave me a chance to catch up on some I’d missed, in particular U A Fanthorpe’s Atlas and Derek Mahon’s Everything is going to be all right.

Josephine Corocoran’s Skip to the good bits was just the sort of ‘yearly review’ I’d love to have written, an entertaining walk-through of what she’s enjoyed reading in 2013, the many events she’s been to and her own writing – very motivational.

Katy Evans-Bush did something slightly different with a ‘Ten ways to celebrate Christmas with poetry‘ blog post, which included an interesting list of poets born in Christmas week, as well as suggestions such as ‘have a read aloud session after Christmas dinner’ – I can picture that going down well in some households more than others! Having said that, I remember a power cut on Christmas day a few years back in which someone started singing a Christmas carol, someone else joined in, and we ended up entertaining the neighbours with our impression of the Von Trapp Family. So anything’s possible.

TS Eliot Prize collection shortlist 2013 — Collections shortlisted for the 2013 TS Eliot Prize

Speaking of Katy E-B, she’s holding a one-day session at the Poetry School this coming Saturday, focusing on the T S Eliot shortlisted collections. I’m looking forward to getting a feel for the them prior to the prize readings the following day. I think there are a couple of places left so if it appeals to you contact Katy directly, and maybe see you there.

Bloggers/ 28/12/2013

End of year thank yous, submissions news, plans

Daisy by the Xmas tree Happy Holidays (or non-denominational winter festival, etc). Wouldn’t it be great to end the year on a ‘good news’ note? You know – I’ve suddenly been snapped up by Faber, or something – but I’ve nothing exciting to report on the submissions front, sadly: yet another no from Ambit, and a very swift no from HappenStance (very generous of Nell Nelson to read and respond so quickly and thoughtfully, even though I sensed she found my poems a tad yawn-worthy. Clearly I must do better if I want to raise myself above the swollen river of poetic same-ness that constantly darkens her door. Oh dear, there’s a lovely mixed metaphor for you – I rest my case…)

Oddly enough I don’t feel knocked back. I’m strangely optimistic about 2014, and determined to make something happen rather than be passive about it all. What that means exactly I’m not sure, it’s just a kernel of a feeling for now … will let you know!

There’s plenty of poetry business to keep me out of mischief in January: a trip to the T S Eliot Award readings on 13th – I have poet friend Julia to thank for introducing me to this annual poets’ gathering. Great fun! Also, I’ve lately got involved with Needlewriters here in Lewes, and am pledged to help publicise it – next event is on 16th, with Kay Syrad, Patricia McCarthy and John Usher. Plus there’s Brighton Stanza to think about – next meeting on 20th and some planning to be done before then.

I’m planning also for the Lewes Singers, our occasional choir – two concerts in 2014 and cathedral visits for 2015 and 2016 – yes, they have to be booked that far ahead! The Church of England may be struggling for attendees these days and plenty of the less glamorous cathedrals are desperately strapped for cash, but there will always be a ton of choirs wanting to sing in them. Sadly, it’s regular church goers and visitors who are needed, for their donations, whereas visiting choirs contribute nothing except their singing. A bit unfair of us really. The unevenness of this reminds me of the situation in poetry, vis a vis readers / writers.

I was very lucky this Christmas, not only did my lovely other half buy me a copy of A London Year, 365 Days of City Life in Diaries, Journals and Letters by Travis Elborough, which I’ve coveted for a while, but Stepson also came up trumps and presented me with the Centenary Edition of William Blake’s Poetry and Prose. Blake! Just the thing I need to clear my brain after a bit of Christmas excess and trashy reading.

This will probably be my last post for 2013, so I wanted to mention some of my favourite poetry blogs/poet bloggers and generous Poetgal supporters … thank you all so much for the wonderful posts, discussion, comments, shares/retweets, camaraderie and support: Josephine Corcoran at And Other Poems, Abegail Morley at The Poetry Shed, Anthony Wilson, Meg Cox, Isabel Rogers, Jean Tubridy at Social Bridge, Jayne Stanton, Elly Nobbs, Hilda Sheehan and Lynne Hjelmgaard. And apologies to anyone I’ve omitted. You are all brilliant and it’s a pleasure to know you (even if virtually).

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and I wish you a healthy, happy and successful 2014! Robin x

Category: Bloggers