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Some news that made me stop and think this week was the announcement of the death of Gerard Benson, one of the founders of Poems on the Underground. I didn't know Gerard Benson or his writing but I have benefitted hugely from reading poems posted behind the straphangers on London's tube trains. The scheme started… Continue reading The generosity of public poems
Sharing your poetry books with children. Children seem very open to writing, reading and talking about poetry. I've never heard a child say, as I've heard plenty of adults say, "Oh, I don't really get poetry." I've mentioned before that, since they were 11 and 12 (they're now 13 and 14), I've taken my own children… Continue reading Beyond the Ning Nang Nong.
Today's Daily Prompt from WordPress, Because the Night - Are you a night owl or are you the early bird? - and being on holiday over Easter - has made me realise that I'm most productive as a writer, and most cheerful as a human being, when I'm a slave to no routine or alarm… Continue reading Neither a lark nor an owl
Getting to know people through their writing. I met my husband, Andrew Horsfall, in September 1993 while we were students at West Sussex Institute of Higher Education (now University of Chichester) and we lived on campus at Bishop Otter College, Chichester, in a small 1930s block of student accommodation called New Hall (now, I believe,… Continue reading How I met my husband
If I'm not here, I might be on Instagram. I've mentioned before that I've been trying to post once a week in 2014 and usually on a Sunday. However, the school Easter holidays and a flying visit to Paris with my family meant that I missed last Sunday and my schedule is now of order. … Continue reading I’m on Instagram
People keep telling me how much they enjoy coming to the Library Memory Groups I facilitate for The Reader Organisation in libraries in Wiltshire. They sound surprised, as if they didn't know or had forgotten that reading could give them pleasure. These groups are weekly, read aloud, shared reading groups for people with dementia or… Continue reading How about reading workshops as well as writing workshops?
April is almost here and if you're one of the many, many people whose inkwell is full to the brim in readiness for NaPoWriMo there are over 300 poems on my poetry site, And Other Poems, to inspire you. If ekphrasis is your thing, I've gathered poems inspired by art onto my scoop.it page… Continue reading Poems to inspire you for #napowrimo!
I'm very grateful for the generous response I received for my previous post about my mother. Thank you to everyone who read, liked or commented on my words and thank you to those of you who got in touch by email or through social media with your kind messages and thoughts about bereavement, families and… Continue reading We read to remember who we are
This year, I’ve been trying to write here at least once a week. Today, 16th March 2014, I can only write about one subject, my mother, Joyce Corcoran (née MacDougall), born 16th March 1924. Today would have been her 90th birthday. The last time I saw her alive was on her 50th birthday, 16th March… Continue reading In memory of my mother
This week I've been thinking about routines and making changes to my daily life. As it's the first week of Lent, several people posted on Facebook that they were giving it up (Facebook, that is) for 40 days. I was tempted to do this myself as, of all places online, it's Facebook that seems to suck… Continue reading Breaking out of a routine and feeding your notebooks
Josephine Corcoran 