never knowingly without a pen
'Fresh' is this week's Photo Challenge at WordPress and here are a few daffodils (from our front garden) which always put me in mind of Spring, season of fresh, new beginnings. I'm not feeling all that 'new' myself, after a busy few weeks at home and work. However, things I am looking forward to include:… Continue reading Not feeling all that ‘fresh’.
It's that eerie time between Christmas and New Year when all the clocks and calendars seem bewitched. There might be a plate of Stollen and a cup of eggnog at your elbow, another mince pie and a mug of liquorice tea nestling against your mouse. You might be thinking about poetry blogs: starting one, finding some… Continue reading Poetry blogs and blogs by poets, etc.
All power to your pen if you're taking part in National Novel Writing Month and attempting to write 50,000 words of a novel during November. I won't be taking part myself although I love the idea of sitting down at my computer and bashing out 50,000 words of prose. I love the idea of a… Continue reading On not doing #nanowrimo
Two days after Swindon Poetry Festival, I am still in a high and happy poetry place, and I risk losing my euphoria if I try to set down in words what it was about Swindon that I loved so much. Luckily, there are already two brilliant posts for you to read, as Robert Peake and… Continue reading Swindon Poetry Festival 2014
I'm back to work tomorrow and I'm feeling low that my month off has come to an end. I'm pleased that I've managed to work on my pamphlet and now have 18 poems which are as ready as they'll ever be to send to the printers - although I haven't had a lot of contact… Continue reading The holiday’s over…
It's been two weeks since I switched off my work emails and mobile phone and promised myself I'd focus on my forthcoming poetry pamphlet. I started the holiday in de-cluttering mode, paying particular attention to the oceans of multiple drafts of poems swimming through my house. I know that some poets never throw any of their… Continue reading Writing in between catching up with family.
I'm writing this post at 8pm on Saturday, 9th August. I'm in bed, eating an apple, there's an oversized mug of liquorice tea on the windowsill, a pile of notebooks, pens, poetry books and magazines sinking into the mattress next to me like a silent lover. Ooo-er. We're not long back from a 12 mile… Continue reading Weekly update from bed
In August 2012 I started a poetry blog, an uncluttered, ad-free site, called And Other Poems. Two years, 262 poets and more than 425 poems later, And Other Poems is going to take a rest. There will be five more posts next week so please don't abandon ship yet. If you haven't been following,… Continue reading Announcement about And Other Poems
You might remember that me and my family hosted two teenagers from Bethlehem last year, when we took part in a cultural exchange programme organised by Bradford-on-Avon Friends of Palestine. It was a wonderful experience for us to learn more about Palestinians and their culture and we've been watching recent events unfold in Gaza with… Continue reading Gaza: trying to do something other than cry
How lovely to find out on Thursday afternoon that my tweet-sized poem 'Picnic' has come 2nd in #micropoem14, a Twitter poetry competition run by the Centre for New Writing, and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, at the University of Manchester. To take part in this year's competition, judged by John McAuliffe, Janet Rogerson… Continue reading Micropoem at Manchester Review
Josephine Corcoran 