The title of my first full collection, due out on 21st June with Eyewear Publishing, is The Knives of Villalejo. A launch and several readings are already scheduled. More details in due course...
Good title. I think that titles are very important. We can't all get away with calling our collections 'North'! The other day I googled one of my books called 'Original Cliches'. I found it alright but most of the pages referred to a poetry volume not by me. An Australian poet had pinched my title without the slightest hint of an acknowledgement. Are fewer poets blogging this year or is that a false impression?
Ten pounds gets you a signed copy of The Knives of Villalejo with free p&p!
Endorsement for The Knives of Villalejo
"Matthew Stewart is a poet of consolidation, truth, and freshness, with a mastertful sense of economy. His poems matter, and his first collection has been too long in coming. These poems have the rare quality of resonating a long way beyond their modest physical limits."
I live between Extremadura, Spain, and West Sussex, England. Full collection, The Knives of Villalejo, with Eyewear Publishing. Two pamphlets, both now sold out, with HappenStance Press. You can get in touch with me via e-mail: matthstew@gmail.com.
It's been nearly a decade since I last visited Dublin. This time I stayed
in the Temple Bar area, round the corner from a night club that's popular,
by t...
A mouth is two things, a conduit for food or a means to communicate. Mona
Arshi’s “Mouth” focuses on the latter, or rather how something that should
be use...
It all seems to be about trees at the moment. I picked up The Overstory by
Richard Powers in the Huddersfield branch of Oxfam and am enjoying it
hugely. Ea...
January was a blast, despite the year’s first rejection winging its way to
me on only the 5th: I’ve been far more productive, poems-wise, than usual.
That ...
I will be contributing to an event in London next week which will mark 100
years since Rilke’s death. I will read from my translations of Rilke as
publishe...
*Use three Physicians still; First Doctor Quiet, Next Doctor Merry-man, and
Doctor Dyet. - From Sir John Harington’s translation into English of the
R...
Its references to Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds tell us that this is a
so-called ‘confessional’ collection, though it rejects the torment and
taboo-breaking...
I have taken delivery of the final bowl in my 'tree' series. Here it is:
This is the fourth bowl I've painted since December 2024 at the decorating
studi...
Since my last post about the huge spike in this site’s visitors and views
(up over 500%) I’m pretty sure that it’s not my content but another, more
malicio...
“Imagine it: not loving less, but more..” Hello, HNY and all that jazz to
you. Welcome to day 706. of January. I hope you had a good end otherwise
2025 and...
As I write this first review of 2026, it would be easy to despair at the
current national and international news. Well, Chris Campbell’s new
collection, W...
J. B. Smith was my English teacher when I was aged 16 and I owe him much.
He left the school in 1967 after just three years and below is a clipping
from th...
Thank you to all who have expressed an interest in my new *Polar Corona*
pamphlet. You can find further details about it here on the Hedgehog Poetry...
I stitch on to my shirt the cross of Lorraine, the cross of resistance. An
owl in a hollow tree tells me thinking is only natural. Dr Faustus clambers
on t...
I’ve never warmed to Shelley as a man, and when I’ve tried reading his
poetry in bulk I’ve found the process curiously unsatisfying. This is odd:
his writi...
It’s a great pleasure to introduce this month’s guest poet Julie Mellor.
Julie holds a PhD in creative writing from Sheffield Hallam University and
has pub...
At the heart of Deryn Rees-Jones’ new collection Hôtel Amour (Seren), there
is a sequence of twenty-four sonnets which flip for the first time into the
fir...
Perhaps it is my southern hemisphere background, but I find it hard not to
feel gloomy in the cold, dark, dreary months of northern winter. This
December h...
First post of 2025...!
It's been a while since I've sent poems out into the world though I've been
writing away in the background. Anyway, I'm pleased t...
We’ve been away for a holiday – and a good rest after a turbulent time in
the last eighteen months, and on our way home, I achieved a life-goal (as
my youn...
I've a new essay over at the *North Sea Poets* substack, addressing the
decline of reviewing culture, the rise of the poetry prizes, artistic
standards a...
My husband and I recently visited David Austin Roses in Shropshire. It set
me thinking about why I love roses: the scent, the sweet-shop colours and
the si...
Little SongFirst year: words left, like Gods returning to the underworld.In
the second, I lived as if I we both were dead.The words returned around
year th...
My poetry pen has to be set aside for a while after a book comes out, or
allowed to rest under whatever I’m reading, listening to, looking at. This
happens...
My poetry pen has to be set aside for a while after a book comes out, or
allowed to rest under whatever I’m reading, listening to, looking at. This
happens...
Today is National Poetry Day in the UK, and this year's theme is 'Refuge'.
On a global scale, the world is experiencing the highest levels of
displaceme...
Generally Speaking (about Bookshops) Although there is undoubtedly a few
collections of poetry that are criminally bad, you wouldn’t head to the
crime se...
The concept of poetic ecological collapse has been widely discussed, and so
I add here only a few additional notes of personal reflection. Readers will
kno...
It’s been a while since I did once of these, but maybe there’s something
here to tempt you. Christmas is just around the corner… If you’re
interested in an...
I thought I'd posted this a couple of weeks back, and realise now that I
didn't, but better late than never – this is an excellent tribute to the
poet Ma...
Madge Herron (1916 – 2002) was born in poverty in Donegal, acted in the
Abbey Theatre and became something of a bag lady in North London, where she
also be...
Dear Matthew
ReplyDeleteGood title. I think that titles are very important. We can't all get away with calling our collections 'North'! The other day I googled one of my books called 'Original Cliches'. I found it alright but most of the pages referred to a poetry volume not by me. An Australian poet had pinched my title without the slightest hint of an acknowledgement. Are fewer poets blogging this year or is that a false impression?
Best wishes from Simon R Gladdish