There’s a thought-provoking article article on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, by Robert Archambeau: What Conceptual Poetry Lacks And What It’s Got. In case you, like me, were wondering what he means by conceptual poetry, it turns out to be very similar to the more familiar (ahem) concept of conceptual art, i.e. work in which […]
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‘The Whitsun Weddings’: In the Midst of Life We Are in Death
‘The Whitsun Weddings’ is usually regarded as one of Philip Larkin’s brighter poems: a beautiful evocation of romantic love, with newlyweds riding the train to London against a backdrop of town and country scenes. The visual detail is gorgeous, like a succession of paintings by Constable, Lowry and Beryl Cook. In the context of Larkin’s […]
Machi Tawara at Ledbury Festival
When I edited Magma 34 I was thrilled to publish the first translations in the UK of tanka by Machi Tawara. Tawara is a superstar in her native Japan – her first book, Salad Anniversary, sold over 2.5 million copies and she’s a familiar face to TV audiences as well as poetry readers. This Sunday […]
Reading at the Magma 55 Launch – Monday 25 February
My poem ‘The Future’ is published in issue 55 of Magma Poetry, out now. I’ll be reading it at the launch next Monday 25th February, at The Troubadour, with other readers including Penelope Shuttle and Clare Pollard. Tim Kindberg and Karen McCarthy Woolf have a great theme for the issue – The Soul and the […]
Reading at The Shuffle, Saturday 26th January
This Saturday 26th January I’ll be reading some of my poems at The Shuffle, hosted by Jacqueline Saphra at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden. There will be ‘feature sets’ from Peter Armstrong, Fran Lock and Anne Berkeley. Rowena Knight and I will be reading shorter sets, and a ‘short star turn’ has just been […]