Originally posted on Freefall:
Reviewing John Burnside’s latest collection Still Life With Feeding Snake earlier this week, I was drawn to two poems that frame the male gaze, ‘Annunciation in Grey and Black’ and ‘Approaching Sixty’. In the latter, the narrator watches a girl in a cafe in Innsbruck as she winds her hair then…
redrafting
Various different and, on the surface, unrelated events have made me think about drafting and redrafting. My thoughts were initially prompted by a decision to write poetry. I have been writing poetry on an occasional and spontaneous basis since I was thirteen years old; starting with no doubt cringe-making teenage angst, and progressing to political… Continue reading redrafting
Transfers, facts, fiction, Fonte, fixtures, finals
Originally posted on The Archers Road End:
Finalists You may have noticed on this blog that I only write something when I really need to, or really feel like it. Three times a season, in most cases. This isn’t because I don’t give a shit – far from it. Take a look at my Twitter…
Politics, poetry
Originally posted on Roy Marshall:
2016 has been a tumultuous year in western politics. Here in the UK the repercussions of referendum result on leaving the European Union are yet to be understood. Then there was the American election result which seems to have come as a shock to so many. There has been much debate on the role of…
Response to Stephen Kinnock MP
Originally posted on Checking Reality:
Dear Mr Kinnock, Following your Tweet to me, I wanted to respond but 140 characters was not enough and I doubt we frequent the same curry houses to have this conversation face to face. As a ‘BAME’ member of the Labour party from a family who have voted Labour for…
Sofa Spotlight – Winter 2016
Originally posted on The Literary Sofa:
It’s an exciting day on the Literary Sofa as I launch my new quarterly ‘Sofa Spotlight’ for Winter 2016. As mentioned when the blog reached its fifth anniversary, these shorter, more frequent selections will replace the Hot Picks and Summer Reads, but I hope they will be just as popular! The…
conflict of interests
The blog has been in abeyance for a number of disparate reasons. Firstly, I have been concentrating on visual rather than written art practices, and have been investigating the use of spontaneous smartphone photography to record everyday experience of living with manic depression. Secondly we spent a lot of the summer preparing for, and then… Continue reading conflict of interests
