Poetry
Perhaps that could be a poem title? Should I send it to the Poetry London comp, or is more of a Poetry on the Lake sort of title? Could I get some kind of double meaning out of ‘game’ in order to make it a nature poem and would it appeal to Simon Armitage when judging the Rialto comp?
(click on the title to read more… 602 words)
Angela Carr’s great monthly roundup of comps and reading windows.
Help! I can’t be the only one who has this problem. Poem titles. What the &%$?!*?
I seem to have a issue with both the creative and the administrative aspects of poem titles.
Sometimes I’m pleased with a poem, but the ‘working title’ just doesn’t cut it. Or I don’t even have a working title. Sometimes I save a poem under its working title and then can’t find it. Sometimes I submit a poem with ‘title X’ which, after four or five rejections, I rework a bit and change the title, then can’t find either the poem or where I submitted it. Sometimes I have a GREAT title in my head, but can’t write a poem to go with it. Maybe it’s a pamphlet title? But I haven’t written the pamphlet either. Sometimes I look at the titles of poems in magazines and wonder at their length or quirkiness, and I TRY to write long, quirky titles to my poems. But they resist and resist until they’re just one or two words again. The first one often being ‘The’. (click title to read more – 195 words)
I always think of January as being a bit dreary, so it tends to be the time of year I make plans for things to look forward to. Number one is a short writing retreat – I did a DIY retreat a couple of years ago and got a lot out of it – not leastRead more ⟶
Welcome to the first of my new series of Regional Focus pieces about the poetry scene around the UK. I suppose I could have called it ‘Down Your Way’ or some other BBC-esque ever-so-slightly patronising title. Or I could have racked my brains for something witty, wacky or non-cliched. But hey. PS: it’s long –Read more ⟶
On paper it’s been a good year. Two non-fiction books written, one published and the second out in March. One poetry pamphlet quietly out the door (even though I had to form a poets’ collective in order to get it published) to modest acclaim, which is the best I hoped for even in my dreams. Several significant newRead more ⟶
Anthony Wilson on a super poem by Catherine Smith…
October is my favourite month, partly because it’s the start of the run-up to Christmas with all sorts of musical things to come, before then of course Bonfire Night in Lewes – always an annual high point. Plus I have a birthday, and it’s generally a time for a stock-take and a bit of ‘whereRead more ⟶
I came across this nice podcast on the Poetry Society website and thought I’d share it – Jack Underwood talking to Maurice Riordan about his background, what got him into poetry, being a Faber New Poet, transitioning from pamphlet to full collection and so forth.
In haste … I thought I owed it to you to offer an update on the big launch on Wednesday night, but as it happen, Peter has already written one, so here it is! More from me shortly. I have to go and practice being a mouse.
