Complications
13 Feb 2020 Category: poetry
This essay from Jack Underwood blew me away, because he nails down thoughts I’ve had before but have struggled to put into words. He describes poetry as a necessary counterpoint to the simplification of stories we are being fed today:
They know that nostalgia for simpler configurations and categories is a symptom of fear and frustration. They know that as everything gets worse through deliberate inactivity the more frustrated and scared we become. “The answer is simple,” they tell us: “We must simplify!” Then: “You do not cohere to simplicity. Why are you making this so difficult? Everyone...
Evening
11 Feb 2020 Category: poetry
Night falls so quickly
it breaks apart on impact.
Dark shrapnel scatters.
Inhale
07 Feb 2020 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from Bristol Sounds interview with pet Shimmers, January 2020.
As a Friday bonus, have this song by Anna Meredith.
I was lucky enough to see her and her band last night and they were incredible.1 So much energy and joy. It’s the most interesting and exhilarating music that is unable to be defined. It goes in so many directions and all of them are excellent. Plus at the gig they finished with a medley of cheesy songs, including Daniel Bedingfield and ABBA. What’s not to like?
The clarity of winter
01 Feb 2020 Category: erasure poetry
This song seems appropriate given the events of yesterday. It’s a slow growing collapse.
On the radio
24 Jan 2020 Category: publications
I was very lucky to have a poem on BBC Radio Bristol’s Upload show. The poem is called Encrypted and was written for Tonic, which is an amazing night. You get given a prompt and you have a month to write a piece for it.
The prompt I got was “threw postcards in the shape of airplanes hoping they get to where they meant to”. It pushed the poem in strange new directions I never would have thought of if I was just sitting down to write without a prompt.
Thanks to Chris Beale for recording it and Upload...
Assorted news and links
21 Jan 2020 Category: link round up
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Theres a new poem of mine up on Fevers of the Mind. Its called Failed Hypothesis, go here to read it.
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I love these cold clear winter days. Here’s a photo I took yesterday by the harbour:
- If you’re writing anything in any capacity you should take some time to read this amazing essay by Kali Wallace. It’s something I’ve touched on before, the pressure to keep working, but articulated so beautifully and painfully:
Write something else. Write it faster. And network more, because...
Sirens
20 Jan 2020 Category: this was meant to be the future
Just before the door swung open, Amber was certain she could hear voices. When she walked into the small office, they had lapsed into silence. It had sounded like Tom. Great. He was meant to be the only friendly one. He sat at his desk, pretending to concentrate on work, music on as usual. Derek and Robyn ignored her as well. All three of them wore headphones, lost in their own world. Amber shuffled over to her desk, clutching her cup of tea, trying to ignore the tension in the room and failing. She wasn’t paranoid any more, she was...
New serial book announcement- This Was Meant to be the Future
16 Jan 2020 Category: this was meant to be the future
Blimey, it's the year Twenty Twenty, a year that sounds incredibly futuristic. We're past the setting of Blade Runner. The world is different and weirder in ways we couldn't imagine before.
With that in mind, I’m announcing my next book of short stories, called This Was Meant to be the Future. I’ve been working on these stories for the last couple of years and it feels an appropriate time to release them.
Lunar
12 Jan 2020 Category: erasure poetry
Taken from the review pages of Bristol In Stereo January 2019
Bedminster Lantern Parade
11 Jan 2020 Category: photos
It’s my 200th post on this here website! Hurrah!
Here’s some pictures of the Bedminster Lantern Parade, which was joyful.
2019: books of the year
08 Jan 2020 Category: year in review
In 2019, I read 66 books, but a lot were poetry chapbooks or graphic novels. You can see most of the list on my GoodReads page if you want.
Heres some of my personal highlights:
Fiction
Probably because of everything in the world right now, I read a lot of books about escaping into strange dreamlike worlds. I sped through the Annihilation trilogy by Jeff Vandeermeer and Roadsise Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, both of which share a common DNA. They feel less like science fiction and more like moving into a weird world where the...
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