My review of Sarah Westcott's new book, Bloom, has been published on Wild Court. 'The poems in this luminous book, Bloom (Pavilion Press, 2021) are tight, fragmented things, varying in shape and typesetting, in a style both abstract and committed: the world placed firmly underfoot even as the work revels in strangeness and uncertainty. The first poem, … Continue reading Bloom
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Flatirons
Caught By The River published another of my poems in March, a little homage to the Flatiron mountains in Colorado. 'We headed for mountainsafter dark, a drunk planhatched in his apartment,scrawled like graffitialong the strip mallscarparks and empty lots, the sullen edges of the city.I’m not sure I ever walkedso far during those days,my idea of … Continue reading Flatirons
Verges
Here's a link to a recent poem published on Caught By The River, a little celebration of roadside verges and all they've meant to me over the years. 'Here I learned to thrivefull as cow parsley, ripeas roadkill bursting sweetlyin teeming hedgerows. These were the places I first alighted into the world,on trips to the crossroadsand beyond, the … Continue reading Verges
Tagging The Maze
I've been hugely busy of late with family and work, and the spare moments have seen me working on a new novel. All of this means that I've fallen behind with many things, and that includes posting things on this blog. Here's a recent piece: a personal essay on a poetry collection by Robert Selby, … Continue reading Tagging The Maze
Map of a Plantation
My review of Jenny Mitchell's recent collection Map of a Plantation has now been published on Wild Court. The title of Jenny Mitchell’s follow-up collection to 2019’s Her Lost Language begins with a gesture to objectivity. Map of a Plantation (Indigo Dreams, 2021) – we’re offered a sense of distance, a dispassionate realm of depiction, the chart not the … Continue reading Map of a Plantation
The Political Economy of Tango in the Twenty-First Century by Richard Schwarz
My review of The Political Economy of Tango in the Twenty-First Century appeared in issue 64 of The Journal. Where to start with this collection by Richard Schwarz? Begin with the beginning, then, or at least the title, which is very good in this case. The Political Economy of Tango in the Twenty-First Century: it's both fun and recondite, … Continue reading The Political Economy of Tango in the Twenty-First Century by Richard Schwarz
Bad Idea by Robert Sheppard
My review of Bad Idea appeared in issue 64 of The Journal.When reviewing poetry, you can be forgiven for looking for the open goal, the snagging hook. And so, somewhere in the multiverse, I'm opening my review of Bad Idea with the lines 'What could be worse than a long drawn out process like Brexit? A sonnet … Continue reading Bad Idea by Robert Sheppard
SF Crowsnest Review
Very pleased (not to mention grateful) for the following review of my little science fiction book, Requiem For An Astronaut. 'I liked everything about this [book]. Bart is a perfect narrator with a calm, observant, slightly jaded point of view that doesn’t lapse into cheap cynicism. His style is relaxed and his musings reveal much … Continue reading SF Crowsnest Review
Cry of the Poor
I'm really pleased to have a poem in the anthology The Cry of the Poor, edited by Fran Lock and published by Culture Matters. 'The Weather In Priory Park' is one of my lockdown poems, about an encounter with a man in my local park. 'Something about a dogsecures you to a place. How else could … Continue reading Cry of the Poor
Hypothetical Games
'From inside all you can hear is the wind outside as it buffets the wire fences. The books line the shelves, programmes are loaded on the computers, the plates in the kitchen are clean and neatly stacked, the meat in the walk-in refrigerators remains intact, the boards games are in the display cabinets, the counters … Continue reading Hypothetical Games
Absence Club 