I'm a bit late with the news, but none the less – one of the heroes of contemporary women's poetry, the marvellous, incomparable, irreplaceable Adrienne Rich, has died. She was 82. For those writers of my generation or younger, it’s easy to forget just how damn hard poets like Rich worked to make a space …
Tuesday poem – “Fault”
A mistake. An error of judgement. A penalty brought against a quiet city. Stroll through the park, lunchtime almost over. A defect, a small disappointment. A summer day laden with clouds, grey light that softens the walls, the stone and brick, the glass. Less than expected. Someone to blame. A sparrow rests lightly on the …
Tuesday poem – “Odyssey”, by Karen Zelas
There are no maps to ease the passage of the godless. Already he is where none can follow. He has climbed into this space, this cavern in near-night, in the far-distance, driven. Cries that crash in forests of memory. Hunter and hunted, and which is he? Obscured in semi-darkness, crouched head bent to bony knees, …
Signing off for 2011
Hard to believe the year is nearly over. Feels much longer. And much shorter. So much has happened. So much lost. We did the Cathedral walkway last weekend – a friend who has already done it commented tat it was a bit like being told someone had died and then being shown the bed they’d …
Poetry Workshops for Summer 2012
After a certain amount of deliberation (ok, not that much), I’m offering two poetry workshops for the Summer – a Billy Collins Weekend, and a Poetic Endings Masterclass. The Billy Collins Weekend – Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd January – will be a Reading for Writing class, where we’ll look exclusively at Billy Collins poems. …
A Dark Feathered Art 