When I start my weekly Sunday run, at 9.33, it’s just starting to snow. I presume, though, that it will be nothing more than the lightest, icing-sugar dusting. It hasn’t snowed properly in this corner of north-east Surrey / south-west London for about six years, but down it comes. To run through it is a… Continue reading Snow Biz
Bloody politics
After this week, it’s hard to discuss anything but politics on some level: chiefly, that failed coup incited by the supposed Leader of the Free World and put down with considerably less lethal force and speed than last year’s Black Lives Matter protests were; but there’s barely any moral high ground here in England where… Continue reading Bloody politics
On the haiku of Thomas Powell
New Year’s Eve saw the publication, by Snapshot Press, of Thomas Powell’s debut collection of haiku, Clay Moon. I was fortunate to read the book in manuscript and honoured to be invited to write an endorsement. I’ve watched Powell develop into a haiku poet of distinction and skill, who in particular writes beautiful nature haiku.… Continue reading On the haiku of Thomas Powell
Hibernation
No thorough end-of-year review for me, as much because my memory of what I’ve done and what I read in 2020 is scratchy at best. The comparatively giddy days of January to early March, pre-Covid, seem as though they happened years ago. I certainly don’t have 2020 vision.If I had to choose a couple of… Continue reading Hibernation
‘robin song’
robin songthe mystery of boatsberthed for winter
The North
I was sorry to miss the YouTube launch event for numbers 64 and 65 of The North, but very glad to find it still available here, with some splendid readings from, among others, David Harmer, Nell Nelson, Pam Thompson and Shash Trevett. It’s a very welcome diversion for Christmas Day. I’m delighted to say that… Continue reading The North
OPOI review of John Greening’s Europa’s Flight
My latest OPOI review is on the Sphinx website. The pamphlet I reviewed is very apposite, given all the dreadful, mendacious shenanigans of Brexit. It’s also excellent, as one would expect from the pen of John Greening. As ever, there are lots of other, engaging reviews to be savoured.Merry Christmas to everyone and anyone who’s… Continue reading OPOI review of John Greening’s Europa’s Flight
Adventing
A suitably seasonal haiku of mine is featured over on the blog of Fokkina McDonnell’s Acacia Publications site. It seems like a lifetime ago that I wrote it and if ever there was a year in which time has played tricks on me, then it’s 2020. No wonder time-travel is such a key component of… Continue reading Adventing
Alchemy Spoon issue 2 launch
Last night, the YouTube launch of issue 2 of The Alchemy Spoon, the journal edited by Roger Bloor, Vanessa Lampert and Mary Mulholland, took place. It features poems by, amongst others, my fellow Red Door Poets Chris Hardy and Gillie Robic. My reading of my poem ‘Double Chemistry’ starts about nine minutes in.
On a haiku by Christopher Herold
early twilightsnow enters a barnon the backs of cows This haiku by the great American haiku poet, Christopher Herold, was the winning poem for ‘December’ in the Snapshot Press Haiku Calendar competition 2019. It was a very worthy winner.The first line enables the reader to see that beautiful, colourful light at the start of the… Continue reading On a haiku by Christopher Herold
