Forged: Tina Cole, Yaffle
I’ll be honest. My heart sank when I first glanced at this pamphlet. It appeared to be another elegy for the Black Country and its industrial past, and it just feels as if I have read a few of these.
How wrong I was. For a start, Tina Cole does capture the Black Country well, as in the opening prose-poem ‘Heirloom Landscape’:
“Long-fingered canals joined the hands of Black Country ...
30th October 2021
Sister of murdered MP Jo Cox attends 'Poems of Hope' sessions after killing of Sir David Amess
Batley and Spen MP Kim Leadbeater, who is the sister of murdered MP Jo Cox, joined Batley Poets when they delivered Poems of Hope at the Green in Heckmondwike and Batley market place, West Yorkshire, as part of National Hate Crime Awareness Week.
Kim said on Twitter in the aftermath of the murde...
30th October 2021
Celebration of Coventry-Dresden peace poems in cathedral
A celebration of a collaborative book in English and German of poems by Coventry peace poet Antony Owen that reinforces the links between his city and the German city of Dresden will take place in Cov...
30th October 2021
Film star's daughter and 'writing partner' wins Bridport prize with poem about great-grandfather
A poet who does much of her writing in collaboration with her mother, the actress Julie Andrews, has won the 2021 Bridport prize for poetry. Emma Walton Hamilton took the £5,000 prize with her poem ‘O...
29th October 2021
'I love you without knowing how or when this world will end'
Craig Santos Perez packs into this love sonnet, 'Love in a Time of Climate Change', echoes of many famous love poems, from Robert Browning’s 'How Do I Love Thee (Sonnet 43)', to Shakespeare’s 'Sonnet ...
25th October 2021
Poetry editor Amy Wack retires after 30 years with Seren
Poetry editor Amy Wack, who is retiring after 30 years at the independent publishers Seren, based in Bridgend, south Wales, has confessed in an interview that she has “an almost purely musical ear for...
24th October 2021
Performance Rites: Barry Smith, Waterloo Press
Barry Smith has a soft spot for the 1960s. ‘Beatific’, inspired by ‘The Beatles 1962’ by Sir Peter Blake, is bursting with colour, as was the later part of the decade. It is the small details that thi...
24th October 2021
Drawing the line: Ray Pool looks back at last days of steam
Write Out Loud regular Ray Pool has reached the age where he is a privileged possessor of what is fast becoming a prized secret. As a young man, keen photographer and railways enthusiast he witnessed ...
20th October 2021
Pressed Flowers: eds. Charley Barnes, Polly Stretton, Black Pear Press
Oshibana, or the art of pressing flowers in such a way as to make a whole picture, dates back to the 16th century, according to Japan Today. When exchanges between Japan and Europe increased in the ea...
19th October 2021
'You see only what you want to see. Maybe you always did.'
The elegant irony of Elaine Equi’s lament - what the Germans, I am told, call, Weltmüdigkeit, (world-weariness) - in her poem ‘In an Unrelated’, about the very contemporary phenomenon of ‘the news cyc...
18th October 2021
Irish president leads tributes to 'charm, wit and passion' of poet Brendan Kennelly
Tributes have been led by Ireland’s president after the death of Brendan Kennelly, who was described by the Irish Times as one of the country’s most popular poets, at the age of 85.
Kenelly was bei...
18th October 2021
Poetry Toolkit conference to look at community projects and how to win funding
Publisher Nine Arches Press and arts organisation Writing West Midlands are bringing together poets, performers, publishers, literature agencies, and writer development organisations to discuss, debat...
18th October 2021
Heaney’s landscape: five key places on poet’s inspirational map
The links between the poetry of Seamus Heaney and his Northern Ireland landscape have been made more accessible to visitors. Open Ground, a series of five locations which held great significance for H...
16th October 2021
Driftwood by Starlight: Caroline Gill, Seventh Quarry Press
Prize-winning poet Caroline Gill, who currently lives in Suffolk, grew up in London, Kent and Norfolk. After graduating in classical studies at Newcastle University, she went on to teach Classical Civ...
15th October 2021
'Clear and compelling voices': the TS Eliot prize shortlist is unveiled
Judges Glyn Maxwell (chair), Caroline Bird and Zaffar Kunial have chosen the 2021 TS Eliot prize shortlist from a record 177 poetry collections submitted by British and Irish publishers. The list comp...
14th October 2021
'A song sparrow hit the window just as summer began'
Bruce Willard’s poem ‘Song Sparrow’ captures with such intimacy the interruption of the comforting rituals of time: seasons changing, children growing older, water under the bridge, the world continui...
11th October 2021
Seán Hewitt wins £5,000 Laurel prize
Seán Hewitt was won this year’s £5,000 Laurel prize for his debut collection Tongues of Fire. The Laurel prize, set up by the poet laureate Simon Armitage, is an annual award for the best collection o...
10th October 2021
Paul Muldoon provides the poetry magic as festival returns to 'trousers-on' audiences
Abruptly, without any fanfare, Paul Muldoon began his reading at Winchester poetry festival by fishing out his mobile phone and reading John Keats’ poem ‘To Autumn’. Afterwards he said merely that his...
9th October 2021
'wait on the chicken to know he gone and it take a while'
When historical figures become the subjects of poetry, there is a rich opportunity for transporting us into the emotional world of such people through the beauty of the imagination. The facts of Anarc...
8th October 2021
Growing Places: Polly Stretton, Black Pear Press
Chair of the OU Poetry Society, poet, coach and mentor Polly Stretton is the author of three previous full-length poetry collections, Girl’s Got Rhythm (2012), Chatterton (2014) and The Alchemy of ’42...
8th October 2021
Delayed by Covid ... but now Manchester's poetry library has opened its doors
Manchester Poetry Library has opened its doors at last. Its opening, which finally took place last month, was delayed by the Covid-19 lockdown. The north-west’s first poetry library is at Manchester M...
7th October 2021
Winners of Foyle Young Poets of the Year award are announced
The Poetry Society has announced the 15 winners of its Foyle Young Poets of the Year award, for poets aged 11-17. They are: Evie Alam, aged 14, from South Shields; Ahana Banerji, 17, Putney, London; A...
7th October 2021
Today! It's the big day ...
It's National Poetry Day! This year’s theme is Choice – and you can find out about some of the events taking place today on the organisation’s map here. The Reader charity, which recruits volunteers t...
7th October 2021
Boris Johnson quotes poet and praises the wealth of Stoke Poges
Boris Johnson found himself rooting around for metaphors among the dead in a country churchyard when he recruited the 18th century poet Thomas Gray to support his “levelling up” agenda in his speech a...
6th October 2021
'That eye-on-the-object look': Auden quoted by Labour leader at conference
We’ve had US president Joe Biden quoting Seamus Heaney, on more than one occasion – and last week the labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was citing WH Auden in his leader’s speech to the Labour party conf...
6th October 2021
Deadline nears for £5,000 National Poetry Competition
Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long will be judging this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition, run by the Poetry Society, which is now open for entries. The deadline is 31 October. Mo...
4th October 2021
'Joy Uncensored' film of poetic battler Joy France wins festival prize
A short documentary film about performance poet and rap battler Joy France has won the best documentary award at the Women Over 50 film festival. The documentary titled Joy Uncensored, made by Norther...
4th October 2021
That people thing … enjoying poetry for real at our live open-mic poetry venue again
For the past month or so Write Out Loud has been heralding the return of live, in-person open-mic poetry all over the country – and last night I experienced it for myself, on a cold, wet Thursday, the...
1st October 2021
