If you asked me to find a single phrase to describe Juana Adcock's "Split" I confess I would struggle. 'It depends' seems such a lame response... But it does. It depends, for example, on whether I've just read "The Task of the Translator" or "The Overburden": one I liked, the second I did not. And … Continue reading “Split”
Category: Poetry
Radio Interview next week!
I am scheduled to be interviewed next week by the internet-based UK radio station, 'Chat and Spin'. They regularly interview writers, musicians, artists and the like, a ten-minute slot which gives you a chance to talk about your work. Looking forward to it - even if it is live and not pre-recorded! The slot is … Continue reading Radio Interview next week!
“Tangling with the Epic”
Kwame Dawes and John Kinsella's "Tangling with the Epic" is probably, above all, 'clever'. It is a dialogue between the two comprised entirely of Spenserian stanzas, batted backwards and forwards across a literary net. It is clever in the sense of its formulaic execution, of sticking to the brief. But for me it is also … Continue reading “Tangling with the Epic”
The Skip – a reading
A reading of my poem, "The Skip".
Sidings – a poem
Sidings they arc from sight with bizarre elegance an overgrown divergence designated to home the unwanted or the forgotten weeds climb rusting axles clogging memories of motion and birds flit in the eerie silence to reserve a first-class nesting site
Forthcoming Public Event!
Really looking forward to appearing on the panel of writers at this free event in Ripon Library on 14th March, being grilled about being a writer - and only having a minute to answer each question!
“Footnotes to Water”
Zoë Skoulding's "Footnotes to Water" is somewhat obsessed with its subject. Water flows through the poems, washing inexorably over you in wave after wave. Which is fine, though a little more variety - if only to better demonstrate the poet's linguistic skill - might be nice. In many of the pieces I struggled with the … Continue reading “Footnotes to Water”
Compulsion – a poem
Compulsion abstracted from reality he painted consumed by a nameless passion accidentally acquainted no slave to fashion he claimed a lack of choice for rolling with the punches rarely on the verge of controlling unbidden instinctive hunches it’s not important what’s created he claimed his … Continue reading Compulsion – a poem
Obituary – a poem
Obituary fettered by an obscured unnatural view he sought another as if a fresh vista might renew a weary perspective on his mother tongue the tricks he’d sleight-handed since the womb his genius for linguistic husbandry were devoted to a life beyond the tomb his embalming for posterity it was the one … Continue reading Obituary – a poem
On Being Thrown Over – a poem
On Being Thrown Over Would your love for me increase were I to die or would my barely-mourned decease erase me from your memory? Would your febrile eyes seek out a physical response, the fuel to weave a quilt of lies made posthumously cruel? Was I no more than ornament, a transient … Continue reading On Being Thrown Over – a poem
Ian Gouge - Writer 