Right now my reading material consists mainly of kitchen brochures, legal house-moving gumph and internet research on macerator toilets and whether you need planning permission to change a window on the rear of a building. So the antidote is of course a splash of poetry. ‘Splash’ being the right word, I think, consider the amount ofRead more ⟶
Category: Form
From first draft to publication
Something of an experiment today. I love seeing those handwritten drafts of famous poems, with the crossings out and alterations, such as this version of Wilfred Owen’s ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ at the British Library. I think it’s fascinating to see how people work on poems, and in workshops I often wonder how a particularRead more ⟶
Something completely different – sound poetry
I was just reading this post on Rebecca Gethin’s blog and from there followed a link to Hannah Silva’s blog, which led me to watch some videos of her performing. Hannah’s amazing ‘sound poetry’ made me think again about the Magma theme ‘the music of words’ – I hope the editors are planning to includeRead more ⟶
Setting words to music
What do you think about setting poetry to music? (As opposed to writing song lyrics, I suppose). Personally I rather baulk at the thought of something I’d written being given a tune. I worry that adding music doesn’t just create another layer to complement the words, but it has the capacity to alter themRead more ⟶
Anatomy of a rejection
It was a long time coming (4 months) but Under the Radar finally emailed me a standard ‘not this time’ (or possibly ever?) note the other day, which prompted me (of course) to look at the offending poems to see if there’s mileage in sending them out again as is, or whether they merit reviewing.Read more ⟶
Mimi Khalvati on form, and a few ‘banned’ words
Saturday was our penultimate workshop with Mimi Khalvati before the summer-autumn break. (By the way I realise the title of this post could be read as a pun -‘ on form’, geddit?? Um, sorry…) This month, several of us got pulled up for the chosen form of our poems. Classic Mimi comments often sound likeRead more ⟶
George Szirtes workshop in Swindon
The sun was shining, it was a great day for a drive and even the M25 was a breeze. So my trip yesterday to Swindon was relaxing from the start. Actually I say ‘Swindon’ but the workshop was at the Richard Jefferies Museum which turned out to be a short hop from the M4, soRead more ⟶
Sestinas – your opinion please!
So what do we think of sestinas? A fun exercise? A thankless exercise? A beautiful form best used sparingly? Hackneyed tell-tale sign of creative writing workshop-itis? Should have left it to Dante? I expect I’m not alone in loving word puzzles so I’m tempted to attempt my first sestina. Yes! A sestina virgin! I confessRead more ⟶