The poem and you

The poem is sitting opposite you, watching while you read it through. Once you raise your eyes from the page, it catches your glance. Takes a sip of its glass of Tempranillo. Lets you think. Then sends you back to the beginning to reread it again in light of the ending.

You draw up some more chairs: one for your memory, one for your dreams, another for your imagination. The poem pours them all a glass of that Tempranillo. They swirl it and sniff. Clink glasses in a silent toast. Start talking among themselves. You even dare to join their conversation.

And that’s when the poem stands up, drains its glass, and quietly leaves. Its job is done.

The Power of Celebrity

About a month ago, Alice Roberts, the famous broadcaster, author and academic, shared my poem, ‘The Last Carry’, on Bluesky. It jumped from 650 to 850 likes in a day. Dozens of people followed me. Was any of this relevant or lasting? Was it just a momentary hit?

Well, I sold several copies of my books on the back of her act, as did HappenStance Press, my publisher. And then those new followers have since struck with me. Moreover, there's one key thing that they have in common: none of them are so-called poetry people. All of them are from beyond the bubble, and now they're all reading the other poems that I post on BlueSky, often engaging with them.

In other words, the power of celebrity is huge when it comes to enabling poetry to reach out beyond the bubble. By simply sharing a poem on social media, famous people are breaking down barriers, inviting their followers to read verse in their daily lives. Of course, we're not proposing pop stars here, but instead cultural figures whose followers might well enjoy written poems if they get over the prejudices that were probably inculcated by Eng Lit GCSE and the dreaded National Curriculum.

This phenomonen may offer us a fresh, additional strategy for promoting the genre. I'd suggest it shouldn't be underrated when institutions are considering how best to promote poetry to a wider audience and readership. If they're actually, seriously, interested in doing so, that is...

Last week's Rogue Strands event in London

Mat and I had a great audience of 35-40 for our Rogue Strands event in London last week. Poets met readers, readers met poets, pints were drunk, books were sold, people were brought together by a shared love of poetry.

It felt ace to have facilitated all that, and we'll be back with more in 2026!