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To Cork!

by Robin Houghton on January 28, 2019

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Rather unlike me but I decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Cork Poetry Festival! Having followed a tweet about it, I looked to see how…

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What Mary Oliver said about distractions

by Robin Houghton on January 20, 2019

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One of the first books I bought and consumed (once I started thinking it possible I could write the odd semi-decent poem) was Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook, along with…

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Catchup for a rainy day – news, upcoming etc

by Robin Houghton on August 26, 2018

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With a real sense of summer coming to an end, I just wanted to mention a few things before August is up, and that feeling of moving on to the…

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“Patience is the master key to every situation”

by Robin Houghton on June 26, 2018

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Another wonderful article from Brain Pickings, this time Rilke on ‘the lonely patience of creative work.’ Solitude and patience are essential to creative work, he says: “Leave to your opinions…

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Notes on a poetry residential at Garsdale

by Robin Houghton on June 21, 2018

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I’m back from an inspirational week at the Garsdale Retreat, on a poetry residential course that deserved to be full but wasn’t – if you’ve ever done an Arvon week…

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From Picasso to Garsdale: news roundup

by Robin Houghton on May 14, 2018

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Taking a leaf out of Peter Kenny’s book, here are seven items from the imaginary newsdesk at Kenny Houghton Towers (sorry Peter – but as Picasso said – possibly – ‘Good artists…

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Roundup | a good poetry week

by Robin Houghton on October 16, 2017

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Bit of a roundup post. Last Tuesday evening at West Greenwich Library I got to hear some super poems inspired by the Mary Evans Picture Library, by Sarah Westcott (who…

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Blog Retreats Writing

Flogging old drafts – ‘do I still want to say this?’

by Robin Houghton on October 3, 2017

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No, not flogging in the sense of selling, although who knows? Maybe there’s a market for it – poets could sell their old given-up-on poems to others who might be…

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To Liverpool, 28 drafts later

by Robin Houghton on September 20, 2017

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It’s wonderful how software like Illustrator allows non-designers like me a chance to play around with layout, typefaces and graphic design. I really value how digital has made good quality…

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Those poetry ‘banned words’ again

by Robin Houghton on September 15, 2017

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Another perennial topic that poets always seem to enjoy debating – what are the ‘banned’ words? The word ‘shard’ came up the other evening at Hasting Stanza and I couldn’t…

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