This post describes a technique which I developed a few years ago as part of my PhD thesis: The work of the Archetypal Psychologists was grounded heavily in the culture and ethos of the renaissance, particularly the Italian Renaissance. For example, James Hillman and Thomas Moore both make frequent references to the work of Marcilio … Read more
“If we can’t find Heaven, there are always blue jays” He said, as he opened the car door and walked off into the night. I looked at his shadow shortening to the street corner And wondered how I had been so gullible, to listen to this. I was sitting there now, nothing left. No hope. … Read more
[from a new poetry sequence which I am developing] I watched the little specs of dust as they floatedIn shafts of light through the churchA voice was working its way through a sermonBut my mind was engaged in this little worldWhere the dust bits fall then spin and whirlSome micro universe where I can imagineA … Read more
I thought it would be useful to set out some of the ideas and techniques I use to produce new poems. When the creative muse is off on holiday, I sometimes draw inspiration from old poems. I am also really interested in techniques from popular music, particularly approaches like remixing, remastering and cut-ups. These ideas … Read more
A quote from e e cummings: “One’s not half of two, it’s two that are halves of one” Wow. I found that in a book I have just begun to read called ‘Man’s journey to Simple Abundance’ edited by Sarah Ban Breathnach.
After a long poetic silence, words are beginning to appear in my head again. Some new poetry fragments – towards a 2007 sequence… (1) The sound of the helicopter blades reminded me thatThe first time I had stood on this rocky outcrop I hadWondered what I was doing nextThen the pieces of the jigsaw all … Read more
When at school, nowhere else but the space that was givenAnd those tighter moments, when the neurosis of the timeMade no more sense than the 70s were supposed to… Three lines, two times, and once we had becomeThe glide of a hawk, the times when we capturedAll the dreams that had been spinning around outside … Read more
you see, when I was young and writing for all I could findI read somewhere that it was wrong to use too many wordsthat end in –ing, so avoided it, wanting to get it right how stupid though, how the rules that we get are really allthere to be ignored, to be recreated. When word … Read more
Here is one of the poems which I wrote back in March. I’m about to start writing again. This one stirred me to the page again, and it brought to mind the golden eagles I wrote about in the last post to the blog. The birds in this poem were flying in a massive flock … Read more
I have written hardly any poetry in such a long time now – March was the last time I put anything together which might be called a poem. I’m inspired by the daily posts on Greg Perry’s blog at the moment. He is writing a canto series. Each day sees at least one new poem, … Read more