We’ve lost one of the great ones. Last Friday that gentle, good man with the eye of a shepherd and the heart of a bard, Seamus Heaney, died after a short illness, aged 74. For a number of reasons I find myself feeling undone by this. He has been a huge influence. I never met …
Awards! (Other people’s!) and a Competition!
Last night the 2013 NZ Post Book Awards were announced, with The Darling North by Anne Kennedy taking out Best Book of Poetry, and Helen Heath’s Graft taking out Best First Book of Poetry. Well done Anne and Helen! The open was a really interesting field – the judges decided they couldn’t only shortlist three, …
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A status update (but not in a facebooky way)
It’s this time of the year when I usually do a private overview of what I’ve managed to achieve over the previous twelve months. So it’s spookily appropriate that David Howard asked me to provide a “career overview” in thirteen poems and associated comments for the Truck poetry blog, where he is guest editor this …
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JAAMy Fare, and less Salt
First, some good news: the highly discerning crew at JAAM have selected ‘Fare’ for inclusion in the next issue, JAAM 31, due out in October! Hooray! So for all of you who would like to read the whole poem (especially those of you who have followed through its birth-pangs) and who don’t want to wait for the …
Dalek poetry reading
Just had to share this one. The bit in question is from 1:10 to 1:28 (don’t think I can edit it to just display that bit, so feel free to scroll for yourself) – Yep, I think we’ve all been there.
A Dark Feathered Art 