Here is your delayed Sunday poem fix folks. This week the poem is by Holly Hopkins, and it is one of my favourite poems of hers. I love the description of the ducks and the ‘What excellent thrift’ verse. And…
Poetry Parnassus Gushing
I am uncomfortably aware that I did not blog on Thursday as promised. Thursday last week now seems a million miles away – Thursday last week was before Poetry Parnassus, which was this weekend, and was one of the best…
Sunday Poem – slightly delayed – Ben Willems
You may (or may not) have noticed that no Sunday Poem appeared this week. I have a very good excuse in that I was swanning around London, reading at the ‘New Poet’s Festival’ organised by Roddy Lumsden and Emily Hasler. I…
Roy Marshall composes a Poem instead of a Review of ‘If We Could Speak Like Wolves’
Roy Marshall, who was one of the first ‘Sunday Poets’ I featured on this blog, sent me my first review of my pamphlet in the shape of a poem by email today, and kindly said I could put it on…
Sunday Poem 10 – Janet Rogerson
Today’s Sunday poem is by Janet Rogerson. Janet has just had her first pamphlet published by The Rialto (www. therialto.co.uk) and a thing of beuaty it is too. The Rialto not only produce the fantastic magazine of the same name, they…
Manky Poets Weekend
Yesterday I drove to Chorlton Library to read for Manky Poets. I met the organiser copland smith in the Spread Eagle pub before hand. On the way, I stopped off for a sandwich and a cup of tea. I didn’t…
Sunday Poem 9-Myra Schneider
Last night I was the MC for ‘A Poem and A Pint’. The guest poet was my lovely friend David Tait, who did an absolute blinder of a reading. I particularly enjoyed hearing his new poems in the second half…
Sunday Poem 8-Skeleton Man by Martin Kratz
Today’s Sunday poem is by Martin Kratz, who I met on the MA at Manchester Met. He also came on a week’s retreat that I organised at Cove Park, and it was there that he introduced me to ‘Skeleton Man’…
Launches and lunches and sales
This week I have been to three poetry events. Tuesday night was a reading at the Wordsworth Trust with Mike Barlow and Mimi Khalvati. Mike was his usual fabulous self and Mimi’s reading was exceptional. Mimi was warm and generous with…
Sunday Poem 7-Me!
In a completely self obsessed way, I haven’t managed to get a Sunday poem from anyone this week. My week has been taken over by the imminent arrival of my pamphlet, which started to take on the quality of a…