All Categories

Poetry in Aldeburgh - Sea Breeze direct to your sofa!

9/11/2020

I'm looking forward (with a lot of hope and a little imagination) to
my first ever Aldeburgh reading!
Sadly, this is 2020, and so it will be on Zoom. But it is still an honour, and all weekend I'll be thinking of fish and chips, bracing beach walks and poems shouted into the sea breeze!

Catch the reading: Between Places: Britain and Europe
12.00 - 13.00
Saturday 14th November 2020
with fellow Europhiles Sharon Black, Christopher North and Fokkina McDonnell

'Naked Since Faversham' launched on Zoom, 12th July 2020

23/7/2020

For me, a Zoom launch is a new and strange experience. Wonderful in some ways - people can attend without leaving their comfortable chairs in studies, kitchens and living spaces all over the world! But also a little detached, without the warm, sparky interactions of a live reading.

For anyone who was unable to 'come' to the launch, here is a recording. I put it here with heart in mouth, in all its imperfection.
There are moments where the connection is not good, and there are a few interruptions,. including (SPOILER ALERT!) someone interjecting 'Oh f@*k!' as they struggle with the Zoom technology! But if you can rise above that, it is otherwise, I think, quite a good recording. And perhaps all that is just wabi-sabi, the imperfection that makes precious things all the more special! Or so I like to think.

Many thanks to starry PIndrop Press editor Sharon Black, and co-reader Liz Bahs, also launching her lovely collection 'Stay Bones'.
.'
Here's a link to the reading:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12OT7iAsz_vHQGPT4IFe3zraQOrdMymbp/view

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12OT7iAsz_vHQGPT4IFe3zraQOrdMymbp/view

New Collection - A Preview

1/6/2020

Very excited to have in my hands the first copies of my new collection, now available from PIndrop Press, Naked Since Faversham!

Putting the final touches to the collection, with the help of PIndrop editor Sharon Black, has been quite wonderful - moments of joy in these frightening, uncertain times. For me, collaborative work is always heartening, and in that, PIndrop excels.

We're planning an online launch reading later this month or next.

Meanwhile, here is a reading recorded at Woking Write Out Loud, including two poems from the collection.

Click here to see and hear the reading.

Free Verse poetry book fair - a February feast!

27/2/2020

There's always so much to see, read and hear at Free Verse, which was held last weekend at Conway Hall, with great Poetry Cafe snacks popping up there too. A round of applause for the delicious dal!

This year I couldn't stay for long, but managed to catch eloquent readings by Pindrop Press poets, Liz Bahs, Marie Naughton and Lucy Wadham, and also Green Bottle poets Julian Stannard (witty narratives to warm the heart) and Caroline Davies' engaging feminist re-telling of Noah's Ark.
Great to see news of forthcoming titles from Paekakariki Press too... I'll be impatiently waiting to read these new collections from Ruth Wiggins, Isabel Bermudez, Sian Thomas and other poets I've yet to get to know.

Litfest in Seaford

13/2/2020

Looking forward to a couple of days at the seaside! I'll be reading with Janet Sutherland, whose collection 'Home Farm' enchanted me last year. Poems, writers, and oh please, an ice cream or two, even though it's the season of February storms.

Festa del Paesaggio - celebrating more than just countryside, more then just landscape

8/10/2019

I'll be reading poems from 'White Roads' at this festa next Saturday, 12th October, in the hilltop church at San'Angelo in Colle.

Dual language event, with help from Lisa Annicchiarico and readings in Italian and extra poems by Matilde Albertin.

The whole weekend looks great - follow the link here to find out more!

Season of Festas and Fruitfulness

8/10/2019

Salaiola Festa in September was really lovely - a jewel of a poetry event in a remote corner of southern Tuscany. Even though I arrived late, the highlight for me was walking up into the steep woods outside the village with organiser Kevin Zweck and assorted Italian poets, to sit in a shady rocky ravine that seemed a million miles for the cares of the world. We just waited to see what words might come...and of course, the world was there anyway, in the rocks and the cascading water and even in the ivy strands hanging down into the ravine, waiting to be noticed or not noticed, needing nothing other than our quiet respect . Why is that so difficult, I wondered.

Later there were readings (and a philosophical talk) from some wonderful poets, including Kalyna Temperley and Kevin Zweck. Not to mention the delicious never-ending buffet prepared by the village Circhio. A real treat.

Poetry Mountain High

31/8/2019

After a long, hot summer, it's the season of storms. In a way, I look forward to it, the way it gathers and unleashes something. I'm sitting writing at our kitchen table, overlooking the green valley between Pianello and Travaglio, as thunder rumbles over the town and the first raindrops start to patter on the terrace.

Looking forward to reading a few poems and hearing many more at the Festa della Poesia tomorrow at Salaiola, a lovely little town on Amiata, our local extinct volcano.

https://festadellapoesia.blogspot.com

A little mid-May madness... Greenwich Meantime poets reading at the lovely West Greenwich Library

4/6/2019

A great evening reading alongside Merrie Williams, Ilias Tsagas (thanks for the photos Ilias!), Danuta Dagair, and other examples of Greenwich talent.

Crazy May

7/5/2019

There is so much concern appearing in the media and elsewhere right now about damage to the environment and the extinction of species; having just read Ali Smith's wonderful 'Winter', I'm struck by her firey critique of the relationship between art and the possibility of real change. I wish that poetry could do more to make a difference. Perhaps at least it can remind people about all that might be lost if we don't make changes now.

Here in Italy I've been enjoying the energy of May as I always do; there's still so much exhuberant life all around at this time of year.

Buds open; out they come

yellow butterfly wings
frilly-skirted wasps
impertinent spotted tongues

fluttering handkerchiefs
jittery space invaders
pollen fusillades

swarms of flying horses
pistil, anther, stamen
flame, keep on flaming,

bold as you like.