The city and the city I lost two cities, lovely ones … – Elizabeth Bishop The city I love, the city has fallen,brought to its knees amid wreckage and mud.Across the four avenues sirens are calling. …
A poem for the 10th anniversary
You never know who’s reading your poem
I had a really amazing experience yesterday morning. Bright and early (6.30 am) I turned my computer on, clicked on a link, and sat down to talk to a group of students from the Crawford International School in Nairobi about The Pride of Lions. Let me go back a bit. A couple of years ago …
Writing Retreat at Sundari
What a superb way to start the writing year! Having been entreated to do so for quite a few years now, I bit the bullet late last year and organised a writing retreat/workshop, which took place over the weekend just past. I had no idea how it would go – I tend to fret about …
Introducing: the Decima
I’ve invented a new form! At least, I’ve come up with a set of writing constraints that amused me, and look vaguely form-ish. For reasons that will (hopefully?) become apparent, I’ve called it the decima. As far as I can find, it isn’t already a word for anything else, and sounds vaguely right. It came out …
Launched! broken lines / in charcoal
broken lines / in charcoal is now officially launched. Hurrah! It was a really fun night. Standing room only, in the end – very glad we’d come out of level two, otherwise more than half our audience would have had to stand outside the room, staring inwards and making a dash for the door whenever one …
