Having missed three Hastings Stanza meetings due to a choir commitment, next month I’m so looking forward to workshopping with everyone again around a table and the odd cup of tea or glass of wine. We restarted face to face meetings last autumn, and after all the months of having to ‘meet’ online it wasRead more ⟶
Category: Books
Nature sleeps. Thank goodness for art
What is it about January? You have to trust that living things are asleep and not dead. The garden is brown and damp. In January I examine any magnolia tree I come across, looking for buds: signs of life. Even though days are getting longer it happens so slowly. Generating every extra minute of daylightRead more ⟶
Thinking about poem and book titles
How easily do poem titles come to you? How about book/pamphlet titles? I’ve always found titles quite hard to come up with. I’ve been through all kind of exercises to try to break the back of it. I look at other people’s titles to see which ones jump out at me (or not). And IRead more ⟶
So this is Christmas, and what have I done?
Oh no! I can see I haven’t posted for several weeks, has there really been nothing to talk about? Let me see… First of all, nothing to do with poetry but my Covid experience was pretty mild in the end. So as far I’m concerned the jabs were worth it. Plus we’ve made it toRead more ⟶
Trying to write the next poem
I’ve just been editing an interview I did with the wonderful Kim Addonizio recently, for Planet Poetry. I’m a huge fan of Kim’s and in my keenness not to sound like a goofy fangirl I’m slightly worried I wasn’t complimentary enough or warm enough. Which is probably silly. But there was something very reassuring aboutRead more ⟶
Meet-ups, currently reading & other distractions
Nothing wrong with distractions, and goodness I’m certainly welcoming them with open arms. But scroll down if you’re only here for the poetry stuff. Distraction #1: Singing A couple of weeks ago I was at Westminster Abbey with members of the Lewes Singers, for the fifth time, where we sang two evensongs in a spookilyRead more ⟶
Currently reading & other summery (?) things
The weather has been a bit rubbish here so I’ve been catching up on some reading and writing. Magazines tend to drop through the letterbox all at the same time, so I’m still working my way through current issues of PN Review, The Dark Horse, Poetry, The Poetry Review and Lighthouse. So far I’ve particularlyRead more ⟶
Faith, hope and podcasting
The sun is shining and I’m going to be gardening this afternoon. The weather is becoming less glacial and I may even be able to plant out the tomatoes. Hurray! I feel my mood lifting. The diary for May and June promises much, it looks like Nick will be working again after 15 months ofRead more ⟶
Purgatory and the wonders (and pains) of technology
After the excitement of having my site invaded last week, and the subsequent tsunami of ‘new posts’ about ‘how to make a salad’ or ‘best value beanies’ etc (could have been a lot worse I suppose), I thought I ought to write a genuine post if nothing else to check whether I still have anyRead more ⟶
What I’ve been doing (and While you were Sleeping)
It’s three and a half weeks until my first term essay is due, and I’m starting to relax into it. Which may sound strange, as I know the usual narrative around deadlines is that the tension rises and the panic grows the closer they get. But instead I did all the panicking early on, whenRead more ⟶