'Touch wood, cross fingers ... Out we come': laureate marks easing of lockdown with 'Cocoon'
Anyone experiencing mixed feelings about the latest easing of lockdown in the UK? The tonnes of litter left in public parks, the return of traffic jams on roads to the coast? Earlier this week the poet laureate Simon Armitage read a new poem, ‘Cocoon’, to mark the moment on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Here it is:
COCOON
by Simon Armitage
Where did the world go?
Once round...
31st March 2021
Marvin Thompson wins National Poetry Competition with 'The Fruit of the Spirit is Love (Galations 5:22)'
Marvin Thompson has won the Poetry Society’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition, for his poem ‘The Fruit of the Spirit is Love (Galatians 5:22)’. The poem alludes to Dante, the Bible, football, music, film and TV, spans decades, and features multiple lives and histories, some literary and historical...
26th March 2021
Nick Toczek reaches his poetry milestone – a year of daily poems about the Covid-19 pandemic
Congratulations to veteran performance poet Nick Toczek, who on Monday reached his target of writing a daily Covid-19 poem for a whole year. Nick began on 15 March 2020, when the first lockdown was an...
25th March 2021
'The box of light that had been a tree': after many drafts, AI's latest attempt at poetry
An artificial intelligence has attempted to write poetry about the beauty of trees, and come up with the image of a “box of light that had been a tree”.
The Guardian reports that the algorithm was ...
20th March 2021
Sale Write Out Loud's Sarah Pritchard donates book proceeds to women's centre
The organiser of Sale Write Out Loud, Sarah Pritchard, is offering to donate the proceeds of sales of her autobiographical poetry collection, When Women Fly, to Stockport Women’s Centre, where she vol...
17th March 2021
TS Eliot's estate invites cultural responses to 2022 centenary of 'The Waste Land'
TS Eliot’s poem ‘The Waste Land’, first published in the inaugural issue of the Criterion in October 1922, celebrates its centenary in 2022 - and the mark this moment, the poet and playwright’s estate...
15th March 2021
Praise from Sturgeon as 'inspirational' Jackie Kay's five-year tenure as Scotland's makar ends
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has praised the "outstanding contribution" of makar Jackie Kay, as her term of office as Scotland's national poet comes to an end.
Scotland's third makar –...
15th March 2021
'Self-publication? It’s a perfectly respectable way to get your book into print'
Rodney Wood is a long-time poet and co-compere of Write Out Loud Woking. He recently decided to investigate how difficult or easy it is to self-publish your own pamphlet. Here’s how he got on:
...
12th March 2021
Wow, readers! Write Out Loud's Matt Abbott pops up at a poetry slam - in the Beano!
Here’s an accolade that I never anticipated adding to my poetry CV. In the latest issue of Beano magazine, there’s a cartoon poetry slam in which I’m one of the participants. Introduced onto the stage...
10th March 2021
Footsteps of Ted Hughes: trails map traces poet's Yorkshire roots
Fans of Ted Hughes can follow his footsteps along six new walks in West, South, and East Yorkshire. The Discovering Ted Hughes’ Yorkshire trails have been put together by experts at the University of ...
9th March 2021
A poem to mark International Women's Day by Rachel McGladdery
On International Women’s Day we at Write Out Loud spotted a poem that we wanted to share with you. It’s by Rachel McGladdery, a former Write Out Loud blogger, who wrote it on the day on her phone “whi...
8th March 2021
Inauguration poet Amanda Gorman 'followed home and accosted by security guard'
The young American poet who won acclaim for her performance at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, has told of being followed home and accosted by a security guard who allegedly claimed she looked sus...
6th March 2021
'Literature lover' granted wish to be buried in Sylvia Plath churchyard
The Church of England has granted the request of a woman who lives in Oxfordshire to be buried in the same Yorkshire cemetery as Sylvia Plath, because she felt “profoundly spiritual” during a visit to...
6th March 2021
'That which we are, we are': Tennyson quoted in chancellor's Budget speech in Commons
You don’t expect poetry to crop up in a chancellor’s Budget speech. But on Wednesday Rishi Sunak – more known for polishing his image on social media than for any interest in 19th century Victorian bl...
4th March 2021
James Pollock wins £10,000 Manchester Poetry prize
James Pollock, a Canadian poet and critic, has won this year’s £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize. The prize was devised in 2008 by the former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. It is run by the Manchester W...
1st March 2021
