I thought on Thursday (last week) that I had finally, in the words of Sir Ed, “knocked the bastard off”, and got a completed first draft of my Belle Dame poem. But no. It became quite obvious as I was preparing a printout to take to my crit group, that it was going to need …
Thank you Dunedin, and hello procrastination!
I had a ball in Dunedin. The event was technically a sellout (well, a book-out), and there was a really great vibe in the room. I suspect I waffled on a bit too much, but that's an occupational hazard. No-one seemed in danger of losing the will to live, so I count that as a …
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Romantics, Pre-Raphs, and Edgar Allan Poe(-etry)
I'm working on a new piece – a modern revisioning of the most tragic-romantic poem from that most tragic-Romantic of English poets, John Keats: La Belle Dame Sans Merci Oh what can ail thee Knight-at-arms Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the Lake And no birds sing. Oh what can ail thee …
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The Book Club for Poetry Lovers – why don’t we have one?
One of the first things I discovered when I began my three year tour-of-duty in the UK was the PBS: the Poetry Book Society. As you may have gathered from this post title, it's a book club for people who love reading poetry. It was originally set up by TS Eliot and friends in 1953, …
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Owls sideways – problematic titles
Ever had the experience of being judged because of the title of a book you were reading in public? I'm not talking about serious literature types being busted with a copy of the latest Mills & Boon (although if any of you of the penis persuasion have had that experience …), or even the experience I …
A Dark Feathered Art 