Having been away for four days ‘helping’ with a college trip to Belgium (my husband was the tour leader – his A level students) I’m finding it hard to get back to poetry. I suppose it’s partly because I’m having to catch up with work as well, and not having a proper night’s sleep theRead more ⟶
Category: Writing
Poetry writers and poetry readers – a tricky issue
It was a small turnout last night at our Stanza reading group in Brighton – just Miriam, Gary and myself! Of course there are all sorts of reasons why that might have been – the first time it has clashed with a sunny evening, plus there’s been some confusion about the start time and contentRead more ⟶
Dear poets: publishing is a business
I’ve been emailing with a poet friend today who drew my attention to this piece in the Guardian, about Salt’s decision to stop publishing individual poetry collections and to concentrate on anthologies. I know it’s been a big topic of debate this week. But something about the way it’s been reported makes me see red.Read more ⟶
Social media for writers, ‘Orgasm Management’ etc
This is not the blog post I started writing this morning – but that turned into a cod philosophical/ psychological discourse that I eventually decided wasn’t going anywhere. So I’ve saved it for another day when I might be able to better whip my thoughts into a proper shape. Instead, more of straightforward diary entry.Read more ⟶
Launches, celebrations, lovely poets
Three days into May and I think it’s been sunny all week – that’s about 5 or 6 days on the trot, something we haven’t had in over a year, if not two. It’s not yet warm enough to take off my ‘winter’ boots (which I now wear nine months of the year.) What onRead 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 ⟶
‘Poem a day’ update, 40 days in
It’s two weeks since my last ‘poem a day’ update, and I must confess I feel like I’ve run out of steam. The last week or so has been particularly dispiriting. But I’ll keep trying up until Easter. I should have 40 poems by now, but I’ve fallen a bit short of that. I supposeRead more ⟶
Getting the pamphlet in order
Although I did enter the Mslexia pamphlet competition last year I did feel a bit like I was scraping the barrel for poems. But now I’m confident I’ve got a decent number to choose from. I went through them this afternoon and started looking more closely at them to see if there are any naturalRead more ⟶
‘Poem a day’ update
I’m about halfway through my mission to write (or at least start) a poem a day. I wish I could say it’s been easy. I started on the 6th February, so by now I should have about 26/27 poems I think. But alas – some days I’ve been unwell or just haven’t fitted in theRead 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 ⟶