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
The cowboys have gone out of business or Pretend to be self-made commercial heroes,The fantasy of TV is a bore,His town and home barely exist in prose. Scribbles underfoot were rare, too discreteThey left him to his own devices.He looked for lovers, quiet town, no-one to meet.Only sources of pleasure were vices. Salt water on … Read more
Three are the ways that I have seen youGliding across the sky like Jove awakeningWondering why there are honeyed spaces betweenEvery field of your vision, every space kept unseen Remember the secrets you told me, kept separateNot available for decipherUn-placed now, re-arranged as though you wantSome bespoke arrangement that only I will understand Never have … Read more
Coming out of winter hibernation, I have begun a project for the month of March. 31 poems in 31 days. I’m also carrying a camera and capturing images as the month progresses which I may use to complement the poems. Here is the second poem – unedited or worked, just in its raw form: Whenever … Read more