Thursday 30 September 2010

i.m. Michael Gizzi, 1949-2010

A splendid poet. You can read about him at Penn Sound.

A truly pluralist UK event

When one of last year's Eliot Prize judges commented on the breadth of the shortlist, when another poet commented on the impressive range of the Ted Hughes Award shortlist, I laughed, as the breadth of each seemed about the width of my thumbnail.

Now comes an outstanding "colloquy of poets" at the University of Hull this November, where Philip Gross and Tony Lopez have each invited four favourite poets to read with them in a wonderful array of readers and poetries: John Burnside, Kelvin Corcoran, Peter Manson, Daljit Nagra, Denise Riley, Zoe Skoulding, Carol Watts, and Susan Wicks. Unfortunately, the event is the same weekend as the National Association for Writers in Education annual conference, so I'll miss it, but if you'd like to attend (and report back?), you can find further details here--just scroll down to 13-14 November.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

The Tethers recommended

In Inpress's September newsletter, Julia Copus recommends The Tethers alongside Catherine Smith's The Butcher's Hands, Carol Ann Duffy's Mean Time, and Selima Hill's Gloria: Selected Poems. Hurrah!

Monday 27 September 2010

Interview in Bath Life

There's a light interview with me at the end of the September-October issue of Bath Life (page 170, to be exact). It was a pleasure to talk about Bradford on Avon and Bath in particular.

Thursday 23 September 2010

Carol Rumens' "Daylight Spending"


Having returned from the States on Tuesday and thinking last night about how much the earlier dark affected me, I was reading Carol Rumens' new book, De Chirico's Threads, and came across this poem. I appreciate its density, how much it suggests about the nuances of living with changing light and time, and the straightforward, but not every line, rhyme. I love the opening phrase, "Atrophied days"--that's exactly right, it seems to me.


Daylight Spending


Atrophied days begin with too much light,
Cut teeth too soon, develop, and start dying
Too young. They leave us to negotiate
The road that steepens after clocks start lying

Perhaps, though, they were lying earlier?
We've put them back for synchronicity
With our sweet flaws: the legless sleeps, the dither,
The touching faith in electricity.


Carol Rumens
De Chirico's Threads
(Seren Books, 2010)


You can buy De Chirico's Threads at a 20% discount directly from the publisher.


Tuesday 7 September 2010

Leslie Scalapino tribute

Fellow fans of Leslie Scalapino's work will appreciate the four-day tribute to her work appearing on Delirious Hem.

Monday 6 September 2010

"Pursuit, Dublin"

Helen Ivory asked for a poem for her Ink, Sweat & Tears blog, so today's post is my poem, "Pursuit, Dublin," originally published in the TLS.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Women's Poetry Anthologies


I'm off to London shortly for tonight's event at The Poetry Library, "What Every Woman Would Carry: Women's Poetry Anthologies," moderated by Dr Jane Dowson, author of A Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century British Women's Poetry; my fellow panelist is Maura Dooley, editor of Making for Planet Alice: New Women's Poetry (Bloodaxe, 1997). Thoughts?