All Blogposts

  • Working as a Writer in the Community

    Working as a Writer in the Community

    It was very kind of Literature Works, the Literature Development Agency for South West England, to ask me to write about my work in community settings. You can read what I said over on their website. And here are some images from projects I’ve been involved in! Read more

  • Chopin and Popcorn at Hilda Sheehan’s Book Launch

    Chopin and Popcorn at Hilda Sheehan’s Book Launch

    Here are some thumb-sized images of poets and performers at the packed-to-the-rafters launch of Hilda Sheehan’s debut collection, The Night My Sister Went to Hollywood (Cultured Llama, 2013), at The Platform, Swindon, on Friday, 10th May.   Among the readers were poets Robert Vas Dias, Leland Bardwell, Cristina Navazo-Eguía Newton, Martin Malone and Michael Scott.… Read more

  • Writing themes, blogs and The Beatles.

    Writing themes, blogs and The Beatles.

    I haven’t posted for a while and here’s what I’ve been up to… I put together 24 poems for a pamphlet competition and it took a lot of time, deciding which poems seemed good enough and which fitted the theme.  Yes, a theme.  I looked again at the poems I’ve written over the last four… Read more

  • NaPoWriMo: I did it my way

    NaPoWriMo: I did it my way

      And now, the end is near ..and so I face My friends, I’ll say it clear… On 30th April I I won’t have written 30 publishable poems, of that I’m certain. But I’ve written some and certainly more than I would have done if I hadn’t signed up.  I’ve loved the extra focus.  It’s… Read more

  • NaPoWriMo: 21 days and a brace of workshops

    NaPoWriMo: 21 days and a brace of workshops

    Week 3.  Poem count so far : 18   Three missing poems but no lost days because that was when I spread four years worth of poems across my sitting room floor and began to dare to believe that I might have enough poems strong enough to submit to a pamphlet competition.  The extra poetry… Read more

  • George Szirtes workshop in Swindon

    George Szirtes workshop in Swindon

    Very interesting and helpful blog by Robin Houghton about a George Szirtes workshop on form and its possibilities in poetry Read more