I am grateful to Spillwords Press for taking the time to interview me for their 'Spotlight on Writers' series. This was a very pleasant surprise at the start of the New Year. If you want to find out a little more about me, and the inspiration behind my writing, head over to Spillwords to read... Continue Reading →
The Italians and Hungarians have stuffed peppers; in the former Yugoslav countries both stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage leaves are popular; and in Greece the recipe becomes stuffed vine leaves. This culinary heritage of filling whatever vegetable you have available with a simple meat stuffing is fascinatingly diverse but also shows the connection between these... Continue Reading →
The salt pans of Sečovlje sleep while sailing boats shelter in place along the harbourthe sun also risesI stretch out my hand and touch Croatiathe narrow peninsular’s dotted and furred with cypress and Mediterranean pinethe sculpture park we visited the first time I came here where all the dreams of a great empire sleep like lions... Continue Reading →
Just before the New Year, I wrote of my 'inspiration' to write one poem in a single Tweet for every day of 2021. As I began my challenge, I realised that writing micro-poetry is not something which comes naturally to me. I am used to writing poetry which flows over several stanzas. I like playing... Continue Reading →
No villain in hell could tell such blatant lies;inciting the people to embrace tyranny:With words of hate the power of progress dies. I see no sentient soul behind those eyesinviting destruction of democracy: No villain in hell could tell such blatant lies. We must not be too blind to realisethe power of the vote’s fragility:With words... Continue Reading →
Happy New Year, poetry lovers! I'm excited to begin a whole new year of poetry challenges by examining a lyrical, dance-like poetic form: the villanelle. The form originated in France, though its name derives from the Italian villanella meaning 'a rustic/peasant song or dance.' It was originally a ballad-like pastoral poem with no fixed form,... Continue Reading →
With sorrowful sonar I’m sending outmy message of love for youmy ocean home.I’m echo-locating your hidden unknown depthsand I’m miracle-mapping your width and your height and your fullnessexceptthe abundance of love that I feelis crowded by an abundance of waste:Human leavings carelessly clogging this vast ocean-landas slowly, almost imperceptibly, my watery home warmskilling off corals... Continue Reading →
By now, I should be an old hand at new beginnings. I've learned to recognise those 'watershed moments' before they arrive. First time was losing my mum as a child; no way I could have seen that coming; no way that anything would ever be the same again, afterwards. Then it was moving away from... Continue Reading →
Don is back from the Christmas break with a fresh new trilogy of Flippant, Comic, and Serious poems for the New Year. By now, I'm sure his reputation precedes him, along with that of his best animal friends Priscilla and Skip (pictured above, looking lean and mean). But I do recommend you head over to... Continue Reading →
His hands make light work of my dreamsand I have nurtured his long summers gone:Love is not always that bright thing it seems. My gentle heart is bursting at the seamsas I am left dejected and alone:his hands make light work of my dreams. I look into his eyes, where darkness gleamssuch callous conduct, careless,... Continue Reading →
