So Long 2020
01 Jan 2021 Category: year in review
Usually at the end of the year I write a little summary of what happened in the world at large. (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.) This year I really struggled. How do you summarise what has happened this year, other than a absence? It’s been terrible in so many ways. The pandemic has turned everything on it’s head and thousands of people have died unnecessarily through our government’s inaction. Let alone all the other problems that this virus has highlighted as deep rifts within our society.
Personally, I’ve been anxious a lot of the year. I feel...
Auld Lang Syne
31 Dec 2020 Category: this was meant to be the future
We were meant to be children of the stars now, Richard thought to himself as he buttoned up his coat. Humans were meant to have escaped this lonely planet and headed out into the void. We were meant to be interplanetary trans dimensional demi-gods by now. Or so the stories and films promised us. Instead, we are all trapped on this dark planet, watching the chaos get worse. Every day, another headline about a corrupt politician or science gone wrong or children roaming the streets causing violence and destruction. It was getting worse by the day.
Richard left his tiny...
Red Ink: Damien Donnelly
16 Dec 2020 Category: red ink
This a series where I interview poets about their process and writing in reference to a single poem. Today we have Damien Donnelly, who kindly invited me onto his podcast Eat the Storms in November. Listen to that here. Today we reflect on the writing process of his Pushcart nominated poem, Tattered Brown Trousers.
Tattered Brown Trousers
Father ate all the flowers
in the back garden
because he couldn’t swallow
the promise of happiness
blooming within the home
he couldn’t find his root within.
Father left all...
Circulation
04 Dec 2020 Category: poetry
We are unified euphoria,
one organism joined together,
twitching, harmonising, swaying.
We dance with the same body.
Our heart it beats as one.
We combine to exalt the music,
exalt the beat and exalt the bass,
exalt our limbs, our skin, our sweat.
We dance with the same body.
Our heart it beats as one.
then my stomach lunges
like a rabid dog
and I remember.
We dance with the same body.
and I try to push my way out
but flesh becomes a wall
and I am...
Red Ink: Amanda Miller
02 Dec 2020 Category: red ink
This a new series where I interview poets about their process and writing in reference to a single poem. Today we have Amanda Miller, an amazing poet who shares poems and prompts over on her Instagram Page @lemondaisypoety. One of her prompts inspired a poem that ended up in my pamphlet Refraction. Today we are discussing a brand new poem of hers.
Portrait
By Amanda Miller
Inspired by Portrait by Antonio Machado
My history begins with a familiar frost, turning from the sun—
A childhood that is full of faceless wounds...
Technical Support
24 Nov 2020 Category: this was meant to be the future
Connecting…
ALI has joined the conversation
Connecting…
JULIA has joined the conversation
JULIA
Good afternoon, you’re through to Julia. How can I help you?
ALI
It’s all so bright.
JULIA
What is?
ALI
So bright!
JULIA
Ok.
…
You’re on the technical live chat. Is there an issue I can help you with?
ALI
It’s broken.
JULIA
What is?
ALI
Make it stop.
JULIA
Ok, I am here to help you.
ALI
Make it stop!
JULIA
I will endeavour to help you as much as possible.
ALI
Help!
JULIA
I understand it is difficult.
ALI
It is-
JULIA
But I...
Red Ink: Pauline Sewards
20 Nov 2020 Category: red ink
This a new series where I interview poets about their process and writing in reference to a single poem. Today we have Pauline Sewards, a fantastic poet I met through her night Satellite of Love. I’d urge you to buy *Today we are discussing one of the poems from her debut collection. Spirograph, published by Burning Eye books.
Pride
Mary says she didn’t know what a rainbow flag was
until a woman with a glorious voice raised one at the Albert Hall.
She said she was just a fat queer from Kansas, Mary says
with...
Red Ink: Barry Hollow
17 Nov 2020 Category: red ink
This is the start of a new series where I interview poets about their process and writing in reference to a single poem. I’m delighted to start with Barry Hollow, a fantastic poet and all round great bloke who I met through Bristol Tonic.
Faith, Hope and Flames of Indifference
you are recently deceased again brother
rested in peace
I always hope, to not let you burn and feel
the lights go out
in your mother’s cavernous heart and
creation inspires cremation
out of ashes, charcoal drawn
from the...
Me Me Me
13 Nov 2020 Category: publications
I’ve been lucky to get lots of stuff out in various places so this is a collection of links to my words elsewhere on the internets:
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I have three poems in the latest issue of Neon Magazine. One is about parallel universes, one is about a comet and the other is about a potential future. Neon was one of the first literary magazines I read, so it’s a real honour to be included in this issue.
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The Daily Drunk Magazine published a very silly poem of mine called Advertorial. It was the quickest acceptance I’ve...
Six months from now
09 Nov 2020 Category: poetry
this winter will be a distant memory but the cold
will have set into our bones, the marrow deep in our
femurs will have wires of frost running through it.
We will lie on beaches, feeling each individual grain
of broken rock and crushed shells below our bodies,
feel the breeze rattle through our pores and sinews,
as we bask and attempt to inject starlight into our veins.
We will have started the process of relearning to speak.
The alphabet will not come naturally, we will start over
with simple sounds...
October 2020 Links
30 Oct 2020 Category: link round up
I’m moving house this month and I released a pamphlet, so it’s all been a bit frantic. Still, here are some things I’ve enjoyed engaging with this month.
Article
Vanessa Kissule writes about how poetry should be for everyone and how it is a transformative break:
Poetry stretches our ability to process the abstract, to reconcile with that which is and simultaneously isn’t. It is the wonderland in which contradiction is not just accepted but welcomed. There is a growing appetite for social media content that stokes nuanced response over dramatic spikes of dopamine or cortisol....
Categories
advice 1 art 2 book review 12 books 1 creativity 14 erasure poetry 48 films 5 link round up 14 music 5 photos 29 plague notes 4 podcasts 1 poetry 129 politics 17 publications 18 red ink 8 stories 15 television 3 theatre 1 this was meant to be the future 13 update 2 writing 11 year in review 10 zines 2