Manchester Poetry Library

I went to Manchester recently to do a bit of shopping, buy a few books and attend the opening week of the Manchester Museum which has been closed since August ’21 for renovations. The queue to get in was about 300 metres long, it was half term, so I gave up and started back to …

Poetry and Sport

Normally most of my July afternoons are wiped out by the Tour de France but this year we have the Women’s Euros to take care of the evenings as well. Which leaves the mornings to deal with poetry stuff. So, this morning I was contemplating the fact that considering I spend a lot of time …

Performance and Poetry

Several years ago I was looking at a course entitled 'Get Heard, Get Seen, Get Noticed'. At that time I had just retired from working in the NHS so this was just the sort of help I needed as my first book of poetry was due to be published and I had no background in …

Not Previously Published

Robin Houghton has written a very well researched article on the submission policies of poetry magazines. Here is the link: https://robinhoughtonpoetry.co.uk/2022/03/03/a-little-tough-love-for-poetry-magazines/ I would like to consider here the policy of these magazines regarding the acceptance of poems. Years ago I was involved in a vigorous online discussion on a poetry magazine’s website regarding the policy …

Round the corner

Over the last year or so a few of my writerly friends and myself have noticed a dropping off of the standard of our writing. A bit of a lack of a buzz in the content. Most of us agree that it could be due to a lack of stimulation that we get from going …

New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve Did you used to get those letters around about this time of year from distant friends who review the last twelve months of their family life and how husband/wife has got a promotion/the child(ren) have been top of the class/their holiday in some exotic resort ( but not as tourists )? I …

National Poetry Service

I was listening to the radio the other day and the Presenter of the programme said ‘and now here to read their poem is the poet...’. Not ‘a Poet’ or ‘a person who writes poems’ but The Poet. Really? I subscribe to quite a few poetry magazines and I had never heard of this person. …

Notebooks

I’ve covered this subject before but last week I had to lay aside my lovely notebook as it was full. The passing of a pocket notebook and the beginning of another is a ceremonial occasion. The old book is laid gently in the bottom drawer with its predecessors. A few tears are allowable before turning …

Pens

Without the pen then images on a surface would have remained as cave art. In about 3200 BCE in Mesopotamia ( Southern Iraq ) cuneiform writing was created using a reed stylus to make wedge shapes on clay tablets. One of the most significant events in human history. And much to my regret I’m not …

Who you know

In 2019 I wrote the following: ‘A few months ago I went to a poetry reading that was followed by a Q&A session. Whether Q&A is a good thing may be dealt with another time. Anyway, during this session someone asked the panel of the poets who had been reading whether going to Poetry Courses, Exhibitions, Festivals etc increased one’s …

Desert Island Poems

Recently the North poetry magazine asked its subscribers to vote for up to half a dozen poetry books (single collections or/and anthologies) published since 2000. As it happens I had been thinking about a similar subject whilst relaxing after the launch of our Indigo Dreams pamphlets. My thoughts were more along the lines of where …

Creatives?

Last week I was asked to fill a questionnaire that kept referring to Creatives in my area. I was quite happy to do this and sent my responses off. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard the term Creatives being applied to artists, writers, musicians etc but this time, because I had responded, I began …

Happy Publication Day

After over 10 years work ( off and on ) today is the official publication day for my pamphlet: Notes on the Causes of the Third World War by J C Dunne I’ve used the voice of an academic historian from some time and place in the future thus: In the aftermath of a third …

The Name of the

I expect that anyone who has ever had a poem published for the first time is ecstatic. The thrill of seeing one’s name on a page or screen gives some sort of credibility to your work. I know I had a smile going for days. Maybe you manage to have some more published so there’s …

Atticus on Baptist Churches

From time to time I need to re-introduce Atticus ( the journalist A Hewitson from 1869 ) one of my heroes. I wish I could write like this: Fishergate Baptist Church The "right thing" in regard to baptism is a recondite point; but we are not going to enter into any controversy about it. We …