March 2021 Recommended
07 Apr 2021 Category: link round up
This is a bit late because of Easter. Spring is in the air, the tulips have taken over from the daffodils and freedom feels tantalisingly close.
Here’s some things I liked in March:
Count Down to Infinity
05 Apr 2021 Category: poetry
I’m working front desk at the Hilbert Hotel.
A queue of guests stretches to the horizon,
each person sighing, waiting to check out.
Some leave but the number never goes down.
No matter how quickly I work, more remain.
The amount of disgruntled guests is infinite.
The Date
01 Apr 2021 Category: poetry
After Kay Ryan
She’s silent, stiff. You drum fingers
on pressed linen. The waiter brings
red wine. Only one glass. Your mind
is filled with dust spirals and wind.
You order steak, but she doesn’t eat.
Clarity
26 Mar 2021 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from DIY Magazine.
Osmosis press have featured a poem of mine called relocation. Many thanks to them. Find it here
Emerald Swell
17 Mar 2021 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from a old New Yorker, no idea which issue.
I’ve added a verse to Joined Up Writing, following on from the last line of the previous verse. Find that here.
Also the daffodils are exploding everywhere and it feels good.
Free From Distortion
11 Mar 2021 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from a old New Yorker, no idea which issue.
A few bits of news:
-
I made a really strange puzzle page for the latest issue of Welcome to Bear Creek. Thanks so much to them. The whole issue is strange and beautiful, go check it out.
-
Sam Cavender (who shot the headshot on my home page) took this crazy UV portrait of me in a park. (We were socially distant at all times.) He is an actual wizard:
Check out his
February 2021 Recommended
03 Mar 2021 Category: link round up
At the end of this month there was a burst of sunshine and the daffodils we buried in November erupted in their pots. This sudden explosion of sun and colour always reminds me of this E. E. Cummings poem and this one by Jack Underwood.1
With the start of Spring and the vaccine rolling out I am allowing myself some tentative hope for the next few months. Brighter days are ahead, fingers crossed.
Here’s a few other things I enjoyed this month.
Film
I turned 33 in February2 and celebrated by...
The Power of Disco
26 Feb 2021 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from DIY Magazine October 2020
Disco ball image from Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash.
Writing Every Day
25 Feb 2021 Category: creativity
Some advice I hear repeated often is to write every single day. Like all advice, it’s a bit more complicated than it sounds. I think it is generally a good thing to get into a creative practice and is certainly something I have advocated for in previous posts. But every single day can be difficult.
My experience
Before lockdown, I would write most week days on my lunch break. During lockdown, it shifted to before work, as I didn’t have a commute and lunch was reserved for eating and getting my daily half an hour of prescribed vitamin...
Fuzz
17 Feb 2021 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from DIY Magazine October 2020
A new poem of mine was featured on Write Out Loud’s social media. Thanks to them. Find it here.
Sky Song
10 Feb 2021 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from DIY Magazine October 2020
I’ve been nominated for the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem for my poem After by Neon Magazine. I can’t quite believe it. Thanks so much to them.
No one could have predicted this
05 Feb 2021 Category: poetry
We’ve done everything we possibly can
they proclaim on nightly broadcasts,
shaking their fists for emphasis as if
describing ineffective ancient magic
runes in the air, as globs of engine oil
dribble down their chins, distracting
from the soft focus, where shadows
tear copper wire from the concrete.
We’ve done all we can, they inisist
in their two thousand pound a piece
newspaper columns, before huffing
furniture polish, snorting ground
rare turtle eggs and sitting down
to a subsidised pre-luncheon of...
Red Ink: Liam Bates
03 Feb 2021 Category: red ink
This is a series where I interview poets about their process in regards to a single poem. Today I am honoured to have the fantastic Liam Bates, whose pamphlet Working Animals was one of my highlights of last year. Today he’s discussing a poem that was first published in Anthropocene on 20th December.
Calling
I’m expecting the doctor’s call at eleven. I answer
at ten past. She asks me if it’s me who’s answered.
I say it is as if I’m sure of it. Her voice is wooly
and small, like...
Categories
advice 1 art 2 book review 12 books 1 creativity 15 erasure poetry 61 films 5 link round up 14 music 5 photos 29 plague notes 4 podcasts 1 poetry 136 politics 18 publications 18 red ink 9 stories 15 television 3 theatre 1 this was meant to be the future 13 update 2 writing 13 year in review 10 zines 2