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 ⟶
Category: Poems
Guest post: Dickman & Gray at the Poetry Cafe
Jo Grigg was at the Poetry cafe on Thursday for what sounds like an exciting evening! Many thanks to Jo for this guest post. London’s Poetry café on a May evening, it feels like February. Then poet Ann Gray describes ‘a pale lake pulling at the throat of May’ and I think ‘yesss’. Reading herRead more ⟶
‘Wake’ by Alfred Lehtinen
Love this poem … by Alfred Lehtinen, a Finnish poet who stopped by my blog and whose blog I’m now following.
Two poems by Rebecca Varley-Winter
Ah, nature. We’re very lucky in Lewes to be nestled into the South Downs, with beautiful views of rolling hills round every corner. With that in mind here’s something nice for the weekend. A lovely poem in Obsessed with Pipework called ‘Clouds’ caught my attention and I tracked down the poet, Rebecca Varley-Winter, who kindlyRead more ⟶
New poem on Ink, Sweat & Tears
Very nice of Helen Ivory to take ‘Left’, for Ink, Sweat & Tears. It’s the closest thing to a love poem I’ve written, I think. Whether it was appreciated as such (by the person it’s about) it’s hard to say! It’s a poem I workshopped at our regular Mimi Khalvati group here in Lewes. I seemRead more ⟶
From the Poetry Archive: Thom Gunn
I’m having a very self-indulgent morning. I was hoping to listen to an episode or two of ‘Poetry Please‘ but for some reason all the episodes from 2012 -2013 listed at the BBC iplayer site are ‘not currently available’. So then I moved onto the Poetry Archive for inspiration. I’m sorry to say I wasRead more ⟶
Super excited
… to actually make it onto a prizewinners list (The New Writer Poetry Prize 2012). The poem in question was one that had been through eight drafts over several months, and I’d workshopped it with two different groups. The content and form changed considerably as I yo-yo-ed back and forth. I’m quite keen to doRead more ⟶
Poem-a-day, Days 3 – 4
Dear Reader For a minute I thought I was struggling already, but the Guardian came to the rescue, or rather whoever it was who posted a link on Facebook to this article, about stealing a line from an existing poem and using it as the basis for something of your own. I had Emily DickinsonRead more ⟶
Poems we read and talked about last night
There may only have been four of us at the Stanza reading group last night but we had plenty to talk about. The poems we looked at were ‘Reprimands’ by Michael Donaghy, ‘Calcium’ by Deryn Rees Jones, ‘Substance & Shadow by John Hewitt and ‘A gift’ by Don Paterson. So America, Wales, ireland and ScotlandRead more ⟶
‘Wordsworth’s Skates’ by Seamus Heaney
A wonderful little poem by Seamus Heaney. Seemed right for the season. ‘Wordsworth’s Skates’ from District & Circle (Faber & Faber, 2006). Happy Christmas.