Over on the Carcanet website there’s a blog post by the wonderful poet Roger Garfitt about the opening poem of The Action, which I've been enjoying very much. Last week, I re-read Roger's superb memoir, The Horseman’s Word too. His writing – whether poetry or prose – is so precise and full of beautiful detail. I’ll… Continue reading Roger Garfitt
On a haiku by Chad Lee Robinson
rustle of corn leaves— fitting my son for a new ball glove This haiku features among the August selections on this year’s Haiku Calendar, and is one I like very much. Chad Lee Robinson is one of the very best of the younger generation of American haiku poets. His excellent 2015 collection The Deep End of the… Continue reading On a haiku by Chad Lee Robinson
Snapshot Press
There are some new, free e-books at the Snapshot Press website. I can especially recommend the train haiku of Alan S. Bridges and the incomparable Americana haibun of Glenn G. Coats. As it says there, if you like the e-books, please support Snapshot by buying a paper book or two.
Summer lull
At the end of the school year which sets the timeframe for my working year, there are always occasions – leaving dos and retirements – which are simultaneously joyous and sad, like a prefiguring of funerals that celebrate lives well lived. The last two weeks have seen more than the usual number of them, and… Continue reading Summer lull
On a haiku by Robert Gilliland
the soft splash of a lap swimmer’s strokes morning coolness One of the June selections for this year’s Haiku Calendar, this haiku, by a former Associate Editor of The Heron’s Nest, is exemplary in its mood of serenity. For me, the swimmer’s action has an implicitly metronomic, perhaps hypnotic, quality to it, which contrasts with, and… Continue reading On a haiku by Robert Gilliland
The Poetry Village
I’m delighted to have a poem up on the Poetry Village website today – many thanks to David Coldwell. I wrote the poem on an Arvon week at marvellous Lumb Bank during the heatwave last June.
On Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s ‘Michaelmas’
‘Michaelmas’ was chosen by Michael Schmidt as one of four poems to represent Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s sadly slim output in his Harvill Book of Twentieth Century Poetry in English, and, since reading Forrest-Thomson’s fantastic Collected Poems, I’ve been wondering why, as it’s a curiously difficult poem among an overall oeuvre renowned for being contrary, albeit not as contrary… Continue reading On Veronica Forrest-Thomson’s ‘Michaelmas’
Places of Poetry
I’m greatly enjoying the Places of Poetry project, which aims to map poems of place in England and Wales. It’s co-led by the brilliant poet Paul Farley and Andrew McRae, and co-managed by the universities of Exeter and Lancaster. Thus far, I’ve pinned 21 of my poems on the map, which is very satisfying. There are… Continue reading Places of Poetry
Dorothea Paul, née Bird, 18.2.1933–5.5.2019
My mum passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning. Here she is in, I think, the late ’Fifties.
Les Murray
I was sad to hear today of the passing of Les Murray. In September 2015, Hamish Ironside (pictured with Les below) and I went for dinner and a few pints with Les at the Anglers in Teddington when he was over for a reading tour and was staying, curiously, in the same hotel as the All-Blacks who were… Continue reading Les Murray
