Some poems dip toes into little pools of darkness. Others just dive in, to rivers of shit. As Jung memorably said- we do not grow by turni...

I felt a frozen thought fall from the book shelves. Morning light danced on the carpet as it crawled across the floor and wound its way ups...

I wrote recently that I would unpack a poem from my impending collection to indicate a bit about how it emerges from the chrysalis of though...

Jen Hadfield is the youngest poet ever to win the T S Eliot Prize. She is prodigiously gifted as a poet, and has a voice that melts the leg...

Mmmm...Well two weeks ago I had Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction. This was my first experience of surgery and though a fairly rout...

Now this, my friends, is what heroes are made of. Freya is the first woman to solo kayak around New Zealand South Island-an incredible feat...

Song of the Siren Let me sing you a siren song, a song that flows from the heart of me. From the lush valleys crazed with wild poppies to th...

It was many moons ago in the wrong half of the seventies and I was working as a programmer in the Department of Health and Social Security i...

True but he has written a great book. I strongly advise you to read, study, ponder, and digest.

I want this boat. So what if I don't know how to sail? So what if sailing upon the deep I shall be superficial and shallow? I want it...

Tony Blair, the infamous war criminal, who is anything but in hiding, received a medal yesterday presented by his mate-the now quite dotty L...

The Iraqi and Afghan Metaphors are too obvious to be even interesting!

I was talking to a man about ‘truth’ . He was a senior manager in a local government department. Incredibly straight, sensible, ambitious,...

AND IT IS BEAUTIFUL Hewn from granite, I was inlaid with copper and silver and gold. Lapis Lazuli my eyes, and burnished well, till shining...

The Bloggers Ball My blog seems to be very slow in taking off. I know that numbers aren’t everything but 49 visitors in 4 weeks means if...

UTTERING THE WORDS OF LIFE Last night when I licked the wet walls of your mouth’s cave, nibbled the sweet shells of your ears, p...

It is only in our moments of greatest challenge that we are ever truly free.

Unless you earn your living from writing it’s a sure bet you’ve got to have a job. That’s because you have to eat and pay the rent in order...

MAY 29, 2009 UN PRAISES THE SRI LANKAN MASSACRE OF CIVILIANS In the Times: Sri Lanka claimed a propaganda victory last night after the ...

HALLOWEEN The Spar shop is closed. Drawbridge up-portcullis down. An aproned granny smirks through the glass as she labours the bolt into it...

The 63 year old leader of the Burmese opposition is now being held in Insein (or should that be insane?) jail in Rangoon. It is said to ...

"The tyrants of the Golden City tremble At the voices which are heard about the streets, The ministers of fraud can scarce dissemble ...

Watched Persepolis last night. What a great movie as well as a brilliant graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi who co-directed the film with V...

Last night I watched 'The Unloved' on Channel 4; a first film directed by the rather wonderful actress Samantha Morton about an el...

THE MADNESS Last night the madness stole my soul. Wove blood red mists before my eyes. Drove me to the door axe-handed. Thoughts garbled to ...

Here's a little throne for the book in your life! I have two.

What is it about Italo Calvino that makes him so compulsive a writer. I love him so much I named one of my sons after him! That would be J...

I can not be the only one who wants Joanna to lead us the promised land!  Bless her and the brave Gurkhas.  A curse upon the weasels who p...

MAY 09, 2009 A SCANNER DARKLY There are a lot of shocking things about Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones, a novel about the destruction of ...

Yes it's here again-a long hard look at social work and all that it stands for and all that it means. Ed 'Talking' Balls and Ala...