The website of writer and poet Daniel Bennett
'Again the fog was bedding down over San Gabriel. On the blue mountains the sun was still shining. An earthen smut covered the town. Darkness came after. The lights were not switched on that night as a mark of mourning because Don Justo owned the electricity. The dogs kept howling till dawn. Candles brightened the … Continue reading Drowsy Night
'For a few minutes more, he looked to catch a last glimpse of the animal, but it had become one of the itinerant shadows that moved as the wind caught the trees. It had returned to patterns of living that were impossible to understand: where every movement and every sound meant something and nothing could … Continue reading Itinerant Shadows
‘Now a strange mood took hold of me, as I walked silent and alone through the last of the pines and the cypress knees that seemed to float in the black water, the grey moss that coated everything. It was as if I travelled through the landscape with the sound of an expressive and intense … Continue reading Sudden Revelations
'There comes a moment when you witness events so epic you don't know how to place them in the cosmos or in relation to the normal workings of a day. Worse, when these events recur, at an even greater magnitude, in a cascade of what you have never seen before and do not know how … Continue reading Mundane Grandeur
It's nice to end the year with something positive, and this very kind review of West South North, North South East by Mat Riches on London Grip is certainly that. It's probably the most perceptive review of this little book to date, and certainly the most involved. 'The title of this collection suggests a journey … Continue reading London Grip Review: West South North, North South East
It's been a busy December, what with work, Christmas, and the ravages of the virus. I almost forgot that my review of Naush Sabah's ‘Heredity/ASTYNOME’ appeared on Wild Court a couple of weeks ago. 'If poetry ever had ‘must have’ purchases, then Naush Sabah’s debut release from Broken Sleep Books proved to be one of … Continue reading On ‘Heredity/ASTYNOME’ by Naush Sabah
'The city could not rest. It was destined to move forever, because if it halted it would start the long slow movement down here -- down past-- where it would come, eventually, to the zone where the mountains became ridges a few inches high, where an irresistible pressure would sweep it to its destruction... He … Continue reading Microcosm Of The City
https://www.youtube.com/embed/7kGWLtiw_F4 Here's a short interview I did with Euan Monaghan, editor of Structo magazine. We talked about genre, ambition, the influence of cinema, and how all those things contributed to the background of my poem 'The Idea Of Texas', which featured in Structo 20.
'A man's features, the bone structure and the tissue which covers it, are the product of a biological process; but his face he creates for himself. It is a statement of his habitual emotional attitude; the attitude which his desires need for his fulfilment and which his fears demand for their protection from prying eyes. … Continue reading A Devil Mask
I've been a huge admirer of Robert Selby's Wild Court magazine for a while, so it's a great moment for me to have three poems featured here. Here's an excerpt from one of them, 'Two Days In The Valley': my paean to a minor nineties film and an out-of-town multiplex. Two Days in the Valley … Continue reading Wild Court
