Pretentious? Moi?
People find some curious ways to promote poetry. One strategy I've often noticed ( and already complained about when journalists do it )...
Top ten poetry pop songs
Okay, this is a frivolous post, but there's nothing I like better than a pop song that gives a nod to the world of poetry. True, there&#...
The Workshop
Although Alexei Sayle has been very unflattering about anyone 'who uses the word workshop outside of light engineering' , workshops ...
Poetry, Left and Right
Recently, my contributor copy of the New Boots and Pantisocracies anthology plopped through my letter-box. It is a good-looking book, with ...
Music and Lyrics
One of the questions I get asked now and then about poetry, and one of the more interesting ones, is about the difference between song lyric...
Why Do People Hate Poetry?
The recent controversy over the coverage of Sarah Howe 's T. S. Eliot prize win has highlighted again the problems the British press has...
Fancy a swift one?
I am very pleased to have had a poem published by the excellent post-election poetry project New Boots and Pantisocracies . It really is ama...
Talking with the Internet about Poetry
I am a keen user of social media, which is probably tantamount to saying that I am a keen time-waster. That said, as I have gradually starte...
Ordinary
My poor neglected blog - so long without a substantial post! And that it should be an intervention by British journalism's answer to Cyr...
And they're off!
The first event of this year's Cheltenham Poetry Festival took place last night - and what a corker it was! The Cheltenham Improvisers O...
Blogging Tour
Roy Marshall has kindly asked me to take part in a 'blogging tour' - basically a chain of blog posts by poets on a series of shared ...
Shadowplay
I'm very excited to be attending the première of Jennie Farley's new verse narrative, Shadowplay , on 24 January 2014. Jennie has be...
Never Apologise.
A seminar room in a college or university somewhere in the UK. The students, aspiring journalists, have been set the task of writing a piece...
Who'd a thunk it?
Image: Thunk A quick mention for Thunk , a South West-based magazine for fiction, journalism and poetry that is about to launch its first is...
Poem at 'Antiphon'
I'm delighted to have a poem in Issue 6 of the excellent on-line poetry journal Antiphon . Moving house last summer involved the disass...
