Has anyone else been following the BBC’s awesome Atom programme these past few weeks? OK, I know it conforms to the formula of similar TV Science shows: sweeping panoramas of Earth and Space, ghosted equations floating across the screen and a casually dressed...
Up early and having a look over recent scribbling. When write a poem I usually have a good impression in my head of its worth. Some poems are just tunings, to get the head into gear. We could have a long discussion here of the sources of inspiration, but I...
The root of poetry is in prophecy. In the present age, science is held to be the tool by which our universe will be explained. However, our dislocated and disenfranchised selves tell us the opposite. While science (and its sister, technology), order and rule our...
Writing poetry is like being in a balloon, floating high above the visible earth, caught by currents that direct you this way or that, although you may pretend that direction is under your control. It is not: move this way or that—deflation is a force that must be...
Just when I start a movement – Poetry|Pulp – to get the appreciation of poetry into hearts and minds, the fecking BBC start a series on poetry, aiming to do the same thing. Being the BBC they will probably succeed, but also being the BBC it will probably...
So, outgoing Poet Laureate Andrew Motion says that the job of writing verse for the Royal Family is “thankless” and gave him a case of writer’s block. I’m not surprised. Where is the inspiration of an outmoded monarchic system that only serves...
