I've written rather a lot of poetry since March of this year, when the pandemic really started to take hold worldwide. I think the lockdown gave me the creative space I needed to connect with my poetic muse. I often take excerpts from my poems and make them into 'poetry cards' to share on Instagram.... Continue Reading →
EIF Poetry Challenge Hall of Fame 2020!
Very early on in the first lockdown of this year, I wrote a poem called 'Poetry won't save you.' Well I'm here to testify that this year, poetry categorically has saved me. Without writing poetry and sharing it with others, without reading other people's poetry, I probably would have gone mad by now. Back in... Continue Reading →
My poem ‘The Song of Summer’s Ending’ featured on Phoebe MD
This poem is an oldie, so it was lovely news to learn that Phoebe had published it on her blog today. It's a poem of changing seasons, perhaps well suited to this time of year: The song of Summer’s endingLament to lost enchanted daysSings in the early autumn windsAnd rustling leaves born on the breezeAnd... Continue Reading →
Inviting Sir Dodo to the New Year’s Feast
Sir Dodo has been left out in the coldfor shameless years that I care not to count:adorning displays in the Natural History Museum;shafted, stuffed and shelved upon a mount:Come in, Sir Dodo, come out of the cold, the time of feasting is upon us, justas once we feasted upon you this table's yours and you... Continue Reading →
The Quarantine Diaries #37: Resolution versus Inspiration
Christmas has come and gone, and I've survived it. Always a relief. Now it's time to look towards the New Year. I know a lot of people are well and truly done with 2020. Personally, I think that anyone expecting the situation to change magically overnight in 2021 will be disappointed. That said, it's always... Continue Reading →
Razor-edge #poetry #Earthweal
There’s a razor-edge scrapingthe broad blue blood-light of the skyabout to burst into all the bright colours of daybut I can’t see itnot today:I'm stuck in the shadow-side of the mountain'Mount What-might-have-been' wonderingif I made the right cutwould that let the light flood inand fill me with forgetfulness of everything that once has been andnever will again?But... Continue Reading →
Chronicles of Lockdownia #4: Father Winter
The journey to Father Winter in the Highlands was as perilous as I had expected. As I rode through the woods above Caer Pathogen, Koronin's hell-hounds soon gave chase. Mercury was steadfast and swift, and a fortuitous snowfall covered our tracks, though it was lucky we did not become trapped in the blizzard ourselves. As... Continue Reading →
EIF Childhood Poetry Challenge: The Results!
The results are in! It was a delight to read all of your magical childhood Christmas entries. Judge Nick Reeves, aided by his panel of snow sculptures (pictured above) had a hard job arriving at his decision. But decide he did, and so I hand over to Nick to bring you the results of the... Continue Reading →
Curious Catalan Christmas Traditions
Though my family and I now live in Slovenia, we spent three Christmases in Catalunya, and have picked up some peculiar Christmas traditions during our time there. I'm not sure how well-known these are outside of Catalunya, so I thought I'd share them here. If you're ever in or around Barcelona at Christmas, you might... Continue Reading →
Conjunction #poetry #Earthweal
I’m no believer in astrologybut tonightsomething profoundwill occur in the sky:Two points of light will coalescefrom our perspective(dim though it is)last spiedin Galileo's time.In cosmic terms, this time is nothingbut for us, it means much:Transition out of superstitioninto a willing suspension of beliefin anything other than those cold cogsgravely grinding like our noses to the... Continue Reading →