Current Issues

My poems are in the current issues of Bombay Gin, New Welsh Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry London, Poetry Wales, The Republic of Letters and Stand, and are forthcoming in Angel Exhaust, The Iowa Review, Jewish Quarterly, Noon, Painted spoken, The Rialto, and Versal.

Additionally, my review of James Shea's Star in the Eye (Fence Books) is in this week's Times Literary Supplement. 

Day 1's poem

Now taken down--I only post drafts for a couple days.

The roll begins...

...for those trying a poem a day for National Poetry Month--come one, come all!

1. me

2. Simon Reynolds, Bath Spa University

3. Jenny Martin, Bath Spa University

4. Alia Brinkman, Bath Spa University

5. James Evans, Bath Spa University

6. Cat Conway, London

7. Nik Jones

8. Don Kingfisher Campbell, California

9. Anonymous (who are you?)

10. Zoe Deleuil, London

11. Alan Summers, Bradford on Avon

12. GB (?)

13. Barbara, Victoria, Canada

14. Barbara Marsh, London

15. Karen Hoy, Bradford on Avon

That's the start--I'm sure there'll be more to come. I better go write my poem for today!

Up for trying to write a poem a day in April?

America's National Poetry Month has come round again, and as the results last year--both for me and those who joined me--were so positive, I'm trying again this year to write a poem a day for the month of April. Four of my six MA students--Alia Brinkman, James Evans, Jenny Martin, and Simon Reynolds--have already agreed to join me--other takers?

The Visitation, 16 March

The grandchildren's contributions

I set up a slide show of 70+ photos of Dad on my Macbook

Lindsey and Katelyn, cousins and sisters

(one of our many long stories)

At Carmody-Flynn Williamsburg Funeral Home, Bloomington, Illinois

Sara's gift for my birthday

I'm 40

What's next?

Joslynn Casperson

My niece, two years old come July

Battlestar Galactica comes to an end

Read the appreciative cultural overviews by The New York Times and The Guardian.

Siriol Troup's Beneath the Rime

Siriol's a friend, so as with Claire's book, I'll post a poem in lieu of the review I can't give. 

Willow Pattern

Each afternoon he walks me ragged,

paths dusty with catkins, fleshy

and sulphurous, a tapenade of grief.

It's the same old story:

towers and crooked fences,

a waiting boat, le pont des suicides.

Even the birds are dropping.

We begin where we end.

These trees with their blue leaves

have survived beyond imagining.

Siriol Troup

Beneath the Rime (Shearsman, 2009)

To buy the book in the UK, click here for Shearsman's online store.

To buy the book in the US, click here for the link to Amazon.com.