All Blogposts

  • 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

  • Blogs by poets as opposed to Poetry Blogs

    Blogs by poets as opposed to Poetry Blogs

    So many blogs, so little time. Interesting but extremely distracting.  I’m not terribly keen on personal Poetry Blogs, ie blogs containing nothing but the blogger’s own work.  Perhaps it’s brave to post early drafts of work on the internet – I’m certainly not brave enough to do that, in fact I struggle to show early drafts Read more

  • NaPoWriMo Week 2

    NaPoWriMo Week 2

    Originally posted on The Bell Jar: Halfway through NaPoWriMo Ahoy folks. There has, inevitably, been a huge falling off in the number of people writing a poem a day for National Poetry Writing Month – but my cockles are warmed tremendously by the poems that are still rolling in, in response to my daily prompts… Read more

  • Don’t mention the T word – NaPoWriMo Week 2

    Don’t mention the T word – NaPoWriMo Week 2

    I’d be lying if I said that NaPoWriMo Week 2 has run smoothly.  Margaret Thatcher died on Monday and my timelines have been ablaze with articles, opinions, debates, anecdotes and rants.  It’s been a distracting week. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of Thatcher or Thatcherism and the news of her death and the ensuing  brouhaha Read more

  • NaPoWriMo Week One (Never mind about dinner, is the poem written?)

    NaPoWriMo Week One (Never mind about dinner, is the poem written?)

    Here is the first of my weekly NaPoWriMo updates.  I won’t be posting all 30 poems (30?! *gasp*) on this blog – maybe one or two – as I’d like to keep them available to send to magazines and competitions. I’m very grateful to Carrie Etter for suggesting I take part in this month-long poetry Read more

  • Holiday Blog – very happy to be left behind

    Holiday Blog – very happy to be left behind

    Just back from four days in Devon. Here are some snaps of my energetic family (one husband, two children aged 13 and 12) walking and cycling ahead of me. If I’d taken a waterproof camera I could also have shown you photos of them swimming, far, far ahead of me. No swimming in the sea Read more