never knowingly without a pen
What has changed since my last blog in January? Well, the world has changed dramatically, hasn't it, but, here in my small corner of west Wiltshire, the news is less distressing. Since I last wrote here, there have been two in-person Trowbridge Stanza meetings, after a break of two years. Our monthly gatherings, on first… Continue reading Towards Spring
Hats off to anyone who managed an end-of-year post, or any kind of post, in the last few weeks. Hats off to anyone who managed anything this year, or last year. I feel that to have come through the past two years in more or less one piece has been an achievement. I'm counting it… Continue reading Light Ahead (maybe)
My system for keeping tracks of poetry submissions is a spreadsheet-free zone. It involves paper, pen and coloured pencils. It isn't for everyone but it works for me and I thought I'd share it with you. First, I keep track of all of my submissions in a little book. It was a freebie from a… Continue reading My Poetry Submissions System
Last year, I entered poems into more competitions than usual. I wonder why I did this? Perhaps I was trying to win some money in a patchy year or trying to store up funds for whatever lay ahead? I'm not sure, but, in any case, it's a good job I wasn't relying on competition prizes… Continue reading End of month, rainy Sunday blog
I'm pleased to say that my poem 'A Baby Speaks on his Birthday in an Autumn Garden, 2020' has reached the shortlist in this year's Live Canon Poetry Prize and will be performed at the anthology book launch and prize ceremony, along with all shortlisted poems, online on Tuesday, 19 October, 20:00 – 21:30 BST.… Continue reading Live Canon Poetry Prize Book Launch and Readings
I'm delighted that one of the poems first published at And Other Poems, the online site I edit, has been highly commended in this year's Forward Prize for Best Single Poem and published in their annual anthology. The poem is 'Personality Test with Worked Examples' by Richard Price and can be viewed at And Other… Continue reading Richard Price’s poem, first published at And Other Poems, commended in the Forward Prizes
A new poem 'Self-Portrait as a Green Silk Dress' has been accepted by 14 magazine (Vanguard Editions) and will be published in their next issue, now available to order. My thanks to editor Richard Skinner. Here is an image of the dress that inspired the poem:
I've recently made a few changes to this website/blog, including changing the site's WordPress theme and updating my 'About/Contact' page. Like other WordPress users, I've found some of the recent technical changes to WordPress difficult to navigate and I've considered switching to a different platform (maybe Substack? Are any of you using that?). But, for… Continue reading Updates to my ‘about me’ page
I've used this blog before as a place to record workshop ideas, so I'm adding a post about some visual poems I've made as they would also work very well in a workshop. Here I've substituted flowers for syllables, words and rhymes in a few poetic forms (haiku, couplet, quatrain, end rhyme) but any found… Continue reading Making visual poems with flowers
My poem 'A Baby Speaks on his Birthday in an Autumn Garden, 2020' has been longlisted in this year's Live Canon International Poetry Competition and will be published in their annual anthology. Anthology cover photo by Anna Watson My thanks to the competition organisers, everyone at Live Canon and judge Jennifer Wong. More details and… Continue reading New Poem in the 2021 Live Canon Anthology
Josephine Corcoran 