2023 marks 25 years since Peter Mortimer’s Iron Press published The Iron Book of British Haiku, still available on the Iron website, here. It was co-edited by David Cobb and Martin Lucas, both of whom are no longer with us. I seem to remember reading somewhere that it sold over 5,000 copies. It certainly found … Continue reading On The Iron Book of British Haiku →

With thanks to editor Ben Banyard, I’m pleased to see my first publication of the year, over at Black Nore Review, here. It recalls a very strange day; one which, I expect, most people alive in the UK then – especially in the south – will remember well.

I was recently very fortunate and glad to see four of my poems published in the most recent issue of the lovely journal Pennine Platform – three short ones plus a longer one, ‘Smallpiece’, named after the gardener at Cecil Beaton’s Wiltshire home, Reddish House. A recording of me reading ‘Smallpiece’ is now on the … Continue reading ‘Smallpiece’ →

The last batch of one-point-of-interest reviews for 2022 were published on Sphinx yesterday, here. They include my reviews of pamphlets by: John F. Deane, here; Clare Best, here; and Mark Wynne, here.As ever, though, there are lots of reviews, by and of a diverse range of voices, to enjoy and pique your interest.Thanks for reading … Continue reading OPOI reviews of John F. Deane. Clare Best and Mark Wynne →

I’ve been saving this up as my last non-collection/pamphlet read of the year. I bought and much enjoyed Wills’ collection Woman’s Head as a Jug (Arc) 10 years ago, and during the pandemic I got copies of three of her other five collections, which I also really enjoyed. So I had to buy a copy … Continue reading On On Poetry by Jackie Wills →

As I said recently, I write precious few haiku nowadays and never try to force them out. It’s surprising for me to find, then, that this year I’ve written as many as 16 which I like to think have some merit to them. By some distance my favourite among them is this one, which Tanya … Continue reading My (sort of) year in haiku →

A BBC website piece on the international appeal of Detectorists, available here, provides some instructive reading, in how superb writing can transcend supposed barriers: that, far from obscure cultural references being deterrents, they can actually possess intrinsic appeal because of their obscurity.I’ve had similar thought when reading We Peaked at Paper, subtitled ‘an oral history … Continue reading On obscurity →

On one Saturday morning shopping trip to Guildford when I was 14, while my parents spent ages in Debenham’s, I went into a secondhand bookshop and bought, for about 75 pence, a Penguin Modern Classics copy of Little Herr Friedemann and Other Stories by Thomas Mann. The only story I half-remember from it is a … Continue reading On disillusionment →

My review of Greta Stoddart’s collection, Fool is up on The Friday Poem, here. It was a labour of love to undertake all the requisite back-catalogue re-reading before I read Fool and eventually started to write. As ever, the Friday Poem website has lots of really interesting reviews, articles and, of course, poems to read. … Continue reading Review of Greta Stoddart →

The first and only occasion I’ve met Fokkina McDonnell in person was at the tail-end of the last century, at a British Haiku Society conference in Ludlow. At the time, I don’t think I knew that Fokkina also wrote longer poems; gradually though, in the last decade or so, and especially from her blog, available … Continue reading On Fokkina McDonnell’s ‘Safe House’ →

With thanks to Chris Boultwood and Judy Kendall, my essay on the haiku of Caroline Gourlay, published in Presence #73 in July, is now on the journal’s website, here. I owe a personal debt to Caroline, for a good deal of encouragement and friendly advice when I was starting out as a haiku poet 30 … Continue reading On the haiku of Caroline Gourlay →

Having savoured Colm Tóibín’s book On Elizabeth Bishop, I then re-read words on Bishop by another great Irish writer, Eavan Boland: the chapter ‘Elizabeth Bishop: an unromantic American’ in her wonderful book A Journey with Two Maps (Carcanet, 2011), available here.The focus of that book is on Boland’s own poetic journey and how women poets … Continue reading On (Eavan Boland and Colm Tóibín, again, on) Elizabeth Bishop →

all daythe drop and roll of acornson a tin roofThe benefit of having the Haiku Calendar on my work desk is that the monthly selections quickly seep into my consciousness. This one, one of the three runners-up for October in this year's calendar, must’ve been written, probably twenty-five or so miles to the north-west of where I am, … Continue reading On a haiku by Sheila Butterworth →

There’s a good case to be made for October being the loveliest month, in England at any rate; though only really when the sun shines and the plentiful golden yellows are at their best, like Samuel Palmer landscapes before your eyes.It’s also a month of melancholy, too, which suits me just fine. The ideal time … Continue reading On (Colm Tóibín on) Elizabeth Bishop →

Thanks to Chuck Brickley, I’ve recently had the great honour of co-judging, with Kat Lehmann, the Haiku Society of America’s annual haiku competition, named in memory of Harold G. Henderson, who played a pivotal role in helping to popularise haiku in English.I’ve been reflecting on why it's such a great honour. The answer is complex. … Continue reading Haiku Society of America Haiku Award →