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 …
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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Auckland, Amazement, and why a Red Coat is a Good Thing
Back from my trip to the 2011 Auckland Writers & Readers Festival. I had a great time, and was utterly amazed by the scale of the organisation. I knew it was big, but according to one of my drivers (yes, they even have a team of drivers who whisk authors from airport to hotel to …
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The secret of good tragedy
Here we are, just (a few hours) under two weeks since the earthquake. We felt a decent jolt last night, which was the first one I've felt here since last Tuesday night (there have been two others we would normally have felt, but on Saturday morning we were driving, and on Saturday evening we were in …
Freedom! (I won’t let you down)
(Or for those of you who prefer Fleetwood Mac to George Michael, how about “You can go your own way”?) I just had one of those writing experiences that is both scary and encouraging. A poem that I've been working on for ages just shook me off, gave itself a flap and opened out into …
A Dark Feathered Art 