Poem of the Month

A new poem will be placed here each month, usually from one of my published collections.

My poem for May 2020 was published in March in The Spectator

THE INKWELL

…even though nothing truly merits the love of any soul, if, out of sentiment, we must give it, I might just as well lavish it on the smallness of an inkwell as on the grand indifference of the stars.
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Sunk in its socket on the grubby desk
the inkwell with its egg-white gloss
in our Sixties classroom (already obsolete).

I am worshipper of small things:
le petit bonheur; a fallen apple moist in grass,
its skin unblemished by the drop;

sepia spots on the endpaper of a favourite book;
the angle of your black beret as I straighten it
like a parent, anxious at the school gates.

New Poems

I have two new poems in the recently published Journal of the Friends of the Dymock Poets (No 19, 2020) and two were published in recent issues of The Spectator (7 and 28 March)

Crossings

There is a link to the piece of music, “Tales of the Invisible" suggested by my book Crossings on the composer’s Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s website. This composition was premiered in the summer at the Presteigne Festival and was broadcast in March on Radio 3.

‘The Spoiled Priest'

My article on my father’s life as a seminarian in Rome in the 1930s based on his diaries was in the Christmas double issue of The Tablet magazine.

A New Poetry Collection

My new poetry collection, The Yellow Wheelbarrow, is now published by Melos Press.

It can be ordered directly post-free from the Melos site.

Highly Commended in Poetry London Clore Prize

My poem “Wodge” was one of two highly commended poems after the three winners in the 2019 Clore Prize

Talk at Presteigne Festival 23 August

I gave a talk at the Presteigne Festival on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, looking at their relevance to the state of the world today.

TLS ‘Freelance’ article

My article on book collecting and the World’s Classics series appeared in the Times Literary Supplement of 26 April.

Spectator Poem

My poem “The Last Bus Home” was published in The Spectator 13 April 2019. It is a Liverpool poem placed in the 1970s when I was a student. Another poem, “Cooking in a Bedsitter”, was published in the same magazine on 18 May.

Aldous Huxley Talk

I gave a talk on 20 March at the Century Club on Aldous Huxley and Brave New World.

Poetry at the Music Room Bloomsbury

I read with A.C. Bevan and Cathy Galvin at The Music Room in Bloomsbury on 27th March to accompany the launch of Ian Harrow’s new Melos press poetry pamphlet, The Quiet Life.

Poems from the Welsh Borders

A new anthology of poems from the Welsh Borders is forthcoming from Seren Books and I am pleased to be one of many contributors.

Poetry Podcast

A podcast where I talk about Andrew Marvell and John Donne with Julia Copus has just been released on the Royal Literary Fund website.

Poem of the Month

Poem of the Month

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