Excuse the trumpet-blowing, but it’s been a bit of a summer with my poetry and competitions. One poem got itself shortlisted for the Plough poetry prize, another was longlisted in the Write By The Sea poetry competition in Ireland, a…
I’ve been trying to find the words to articulate – to myself as much as anyone – why it is I feel so tired at the moment. Although ‘tired’ doesn’t really do it justice. Bone-weary might be nearer the mark.…
Yes, I know, it’s the afternoon. Don’t be picky. Here, for what it’s worth, is my take on what the general election results mean for the parties involved (and, indeed, for us). I’ve done my level best to make it…
Yesterday – by chance, idly clearing my poetry decks of admin – I discovered that one of my poems had been shortlisted in the Plough Poetry competition. This was a very welcome piece of news on a Thursday afternoon, and…
what if doormats were suddenly sentient?
what if elephants nested in trees?
If you’re a regular visitor to my website you may have noticed that it’s been a little quiet here recently. I’ve not been posting any new poems, or getting up on my soapbox and sounding off about anything and everything.…
Over the past few weeks I’ve been out and about with my new book, doing gigs in pubs and in cafes, universities and independent bookshops. It’s been joyous – like most poets, I get a tremendous buzz out of putting my…
I don’t often get round to talking about my poetry. For the most part, I’d far rather my poems spoke for themselves: they’re likely to be every bit as eloquent, far less prone to heading off at a tangent, and…
Well, we are living in interesting times, aren’t we? At the start of this week, the news that West Belfast rap band Kneecap are taking Kemi Badenoch (currently Secretary of State for Business and Trade, though we’ll see how long…
The start of the year has turned out to be remarkably busy. Some of that’s good (gigs, poetry writing, friends visiting, thank you very much) and some of it’s been more of a slog (yes, Arts Council funding bid, I’m…
This week, I’ve begun taking ‘snapshots…‘ out on the road. It’s been a lot of fun, and if the rest of the poetry year turns out to be half as good as these few days in the middle of a…
has been playing on my mind since I first saw it several weeks ago, when the horror in Gaza was still relatively new. It has been playing on my mind over these long weeks since, weeks where politicians and pundits…