I'm not convinced that the knee surgery I had just before Christmas to treat a meniscus tear has completely worked. There is still quite a lot of pain (which wakes me up at night) but I think the pain is better than it was before. Anyway, bla bla bla, health issues. I'm alive! And one … Continue reading Listening to ‘Fountain’ by Ari Banias & other poems
The cover image of Hugh Dunkerley's new poetry collection (Kin, Cinnamon Press, 2019) is of a newborn baby emerging from a birthing pool so I was expecting to read poems about human vulnerability, frailty, pain, the complexities of parenthood, anxiety and joy, among other things, and I wasn't disappointed. Poems in the first two thirds … Continue reading Book Review: Kin by Hugh Dunkerley
I think it's wonderful that there's such a thing as National Poetry Month in the USA and it's great that it's really easy to join in wherever you are. April is also National Poetry Writing Month - #NaPoWriMo - which can also be fun/inspiring/challenging to participate in. I'm not taking part in #NaPoWriMo as such … Continue reading #NaPoWriMo
Trowbridge Stanza is looking forward to welcoming poets Stephen Lightbown and Caleb Parkin to read at Drawing Projects UK, Trowbridge, (Drawing Projects UK is in Bridge House, next to Trowbridge train station) on Saturday April 6, 2-4pm. There will also be the opportunity to perform your own poems at the open-mic. Tickets are £3 on … Continue reading Stephen Lightbown and Caleb Parkin to read at Trowbridge Stanza
Today is World Poetry Day but if you're involved in poetry in any way, every day is a poetry day, isn't it? My social media feeds are mostly jammed with posts about Brexit but some poetry has seeped through, sometimes about Brexit. I like this poem by Laxinx actor and writer Guido Garcia Luechas which … Continue reading World Poetry Day
Thanks to Afshan D'souza-Lodhi at The Common Sense Network for publishing my short piece, New Oldish Poets Society - which you can read here - detailing twelve women poets who've recently published their first pamphlet or collection in their late 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. I've read a few articles recently charting the rise in … Continue reading New Old(ish) Poets Society
Just sharing with you the news that poet Martyn Crucefix is going to be posting a poem a day on his blog, starting on March 1st and ending on March 29th - the day when the UK is supposed to be leaving the EU. Martyn writes that this sequence of new poems "has been written … Continue reading A poem a day in the days leading up to Brexit
After a few years of not going to any regular writing events, other than the lovely Stanza I organise here in Trowbridge, I'm taking part in the 2019/20 Poetry Business Writing School which means I'll be up in Sheffield several times a year for workshops and I've already begun reading for the course and completing … Continue reading A student again
Last week I mentioned that the Poetry Society had a callout for poems that take note, in some way, of 99 of the mostly commonly used words used in 40 years of the National Poetry Competition. I wasn't going to write anything for this because I thought it was too much of a distraction from … Continue reading A few poetry notes
Goodbye, January. You weren't that bad.... actually, you were bad but, weirdly, I still felt a tenderness towards you when I turned the page of our calendar. And just as you said goodbye and made way for February, you let fall a skyful of snow. which held me hostage in my house for a day … Continue reading Snowed in
