Tag Archives: Poetry
Reaching for the light
How are you? Contagion is not confined to the physical, is it? I hope you are coping with the anxiety, the frustration, the uncertainty. We are living through difficult times. The way we are used to doing things has been … Continue reading
Who was Sylvia?
The acrid scent of turmeric prickles tourist noses, where once sooty coal smoke settled in workers’ lungs. Grey clouds loom over lofty moors, threatening afternoon rain. People mill through the lunching hours, questing quinoa, gorging on gluten-free cakes. Hebden Bridge. … Continue reading
Dylan, dogs and the Devil
The gale force wind had calmed a little, though the evidence remained. Everywhere the verges were strewn with debris, as if an automotive bridal procession had just passed by, the bridesmaids strewing branches. Late, as usual, stress kept me company … Continue reading
Two booklets and a spiral. Ways of being humankind
Poetry seems to stalk the streets of Liverpool. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration given I’m basing it on a mere two examples, but they are good ones. I’ll start with the most recent. Last year I went to … Continue reading
Taking morphine with Martin Amis
It’s been a rough couple of weeks. And why, I ask myself, did I knowingly introduce Martin Amis into the nightmare? I can only blame it on the drugs. Martin Amis, in case he hasn’t crossed international boundaries of name … Continue reading
Nature, contrary to mine
I don’t do poetry. I’ve tried before, look back on it and cringe. So why? Well, it was a challenge – and a form I’d never heard of – Tanka. ‘Does anyone not love Haiku,’ ran the intro. Um, I … Continue reading
The poet-tramp-novelist and the dragonfly
No time to stand and stare. You know the quote, don’t you? Or do you? ‘What is this life if, full of care/ we have not time to stand and stare?’ [A classic example of the importance of commas, btw, … Continue reading
MEMOIRS OF A HUSK 