HALLOWEEN  The village store has, just this minute, closed. It’s drawbridge has gone up-portcullis down. An aproned granny smirks behind ...

QUESTION TIME AND OLD NICK                By Tony Dougan No doubt it was an event. The leader of Albion’s closest thing to a fascist pa...

"on the road.. . There are no desks. or bookcases. or boxes of photographs, keepsakes, angel...

Hi Folks, Ok I admit it I'm running out of puff sometimes on the hills.  My endurance isn't what it used to be and my timing is som...

Arnaut Daniel The Sestina, a lovely name for a lovely, if somewhat tortuous poetic form.  Invented by the French thirteenth century poet ...

ANGER RITUAL IN THE FIELD OF DREAMS I say: ‘Let’s get this out into the World!’ And you; a little scared, ask how it’s done. And, wit...

This is the kind of drivel that makes my blood boil. Why? Why can't I just shake my head and pass on by? Because this Law of Attraction ...

I love sonnets; little balls of poetic gold they are. And they are quite ancient forms too, first created by Petrarch around 1235 or so, an...

Stephen Covey published his book in 1989 and it's been a bestseller ever since. I wrote these habits down several years ago and kept the...

I promised some time ago to write a short piece about how I personally organise my writing and my projects. I'm by no means suggesting t...

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...