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The poetry world runs on the goodwill, the endeavour, the graft and the enthusiasm of people who organise, publicise, and put on gigs knowing full well that – in pure economic terms – anyone looking at the work they put in…
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coffee and tax
Courtesy of the author John Siddique – who posted it on facebook a week or so ago, asking (as I did) what loyalty meant – one year after I wrote it the Caffè Nero letter is up and running again.…
this machine
This morning I wake in an old farmhouse in Cumbria with blue skies overhead and jackdaws cawing outside. Today is a day off, a day for striding up into the fells and looking out at the world below, hoping to…
counterpunch
Someone asked me recently why I write poetry, and I realised I didn’t really have an answer. I was able to tell them that my work has been described as raging, irreverent, and radical, or that I’ve been called one…
lies, damned lies
Sometimes the cut and thrust of politics goes way way beyond what it’s possible to lampoon, and – with an election coming up – it’s more true now than ever. On Sunday, David Cameron claimed in a TV interview that…
blood & redemption
blood and redemption. Years ago, when I was still living in Leeds, I came home one Saturday afternoon to find my mountain bike had been stolen – again. By now, we were all living behind steel grille doors to make…
thursday night
Thursday night. Ring Sadji, she said. He’s my friend. Tell him it’s Claire. Tell him to come get me. And she gave me the number. And stay with me, please. Stay with me. Of course I said, and turned off…
keytown xmas
Keytown Xmas. The bus is crawling past the motorway in the darkness when the drunk girl and her boyfriend get on. They’re not overly pissed, they’ve just got that excited unhindered buzz about them, the one that comes from downing…
home is where the heart is
The town where I grew up is never going to win any beauty contests. It’s not chocolate-box cute, and the landscape is nothing to write home about. It’s the sort of place where – if you were driving through on…
bees
I’ve written a lot of poems over the past eighteen months. Some of them have gone up on my website, others have been shared on facebook and Twitter, several became part of my set when I’m doing a gig, and…
idiocy and fear
As a kid, I was brought up catholic. I wasn’t a particularly good catholic, but I knew the ropes, knew when to kneel and stand and say the creed in Mass, and every six months or so my mom would…
america
This year started with some great news. It’s taken me till now to write a blog about it because… well… because life’s been busy, because there aren’t enough hours in the day, and because the evidence shows I’m probably not…