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 toRead more ⟶
Category: Inspiration
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 stickRead more ⟶
Stars in our eyes
There was an episode of ‘Girls of the Playboy Mansion’ in which a new ingenue is welcomed into the Playboy ‘family’ with the gift of a star named after her. “Ooooh, you’re a STAR!” says Kendra to the upstart, somewhat mockingly. I watched the show for moments like that. What is it about stars? MostRead more ⟶
Workshop report – the T S Eliot Prize shortlisted collections
Tonight it’s that lovely annual poets’ jamboree, the T S Eliot Prize readings at the Royal Festival Hall. This year I thought it would increase my enjoyment of the readings if I had an inkling about all of them beforehand, so yesterday I was at the Poetry School in Lambeth getting educated. Ten poets, tenRead more ⟶
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 anRead more ⟶
A literary lunch, a rejection and a Robert Frost mystery
Emerging from the fug of the common cold, what should greet me but a ‘no thanks’ notification from Ambit. It seemed like an automated/standard reply this time, so I think I have to give up on it for now. The last rejection I had from them felt more personal and encouraging. I think three orRead more ⟶
A poem by Lynne Hjelmgaard
I first met Lynne Hjelmgaard at a Brighton Stanza meeting, and knew straight away she was a poet I wanted to hear more of and would enjoy workshopping with. Lynne has had an extraordinary, almost nomadic background – from New York via Denmark, Paris, Rome, London and the sea. The range of her experience andRead more ⟶
Poetry bombing
Came across this – Poetry Bombing – sewing poems into charity shop clothes – how much fun is that?? Except I think I’d be spotted in a jiffy in our small, local St Peter & St James Hospice charity shop, plus you’d need super-quick sewing skills. Knowing my luck I’d be fumbling about looking for myRead more ⟶
A poem by Jenny Lewis
At Ty Newydd recently I was fortunate enough to be working alongside some wonderful poets, and with their permission I’ll be featuring some of them here. The first is Jenny Lewis. I think Jenny was the most experienced of all of us, with many, many strings to her bow, and yet she wore her expertiseRead more ⟶
Riordan & Share on ‘100 years of the don’ts’
Yesterday evening I was at Keats House in Hampstead listening to a Poetry Society debate on the subject of Ezra Pound’s enormously influential article ‘A Few Don’ts’, first published a hundred years ago. As the respective editors of Poetry Review (UK) and Poetry (US), Maurice Riordan and Don Share could be said to represent the behemothRead more ⟶