Rogue Strands

I have the distinct impression that written-page poets and print-based publishers are currently suffering from a growing struggle to reach t...

I'm currently scheduling readings for 2027 and would be delighted to hear from any lit/book fests in the U.K. that might be able to offe...

I'm delighted to feature today a poem by Stephen Claughton, taken from his pamphlet titled  The 3-D Clock (Dempsey & Windle, 2020)....

I have another new poem in The Spectator this week, using the closing minutes of a football match as a metaphor for old age. You can read it...

As I move ever deeper into the third print run of Whatever You Do, Just Don’t , I find myself reflecting more and more on the complete irrel...

A so-called FB friend (who will remain anonymous, so no fishing!) told me to my face the other day that my promotion of my books was far bet...

Endings to poems that tap it into an open goal seem to me far less interesting than ones that bend it into the top corner when the keeper wa...

The book knows that, just like humans, it's destined to be born and die alone. But it also knows (again, just like humans) that it would...

Faction (n). A blend of fact and fiction that transforms anecdote into craft and then art.

Many poets seem to leave their book behind as soon as it's published, but at that point I feel I'm only just getting to know it. Fir...

I can't quite believe that my poem  ‘Th e Last Carry ’  has now reached over a thousand likes on Bluesky, many of them from people beyon...

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 ...

About a month ago, Alice Roberts, the famous broadcaster, author and academic, shared my poem,  ‘Th e Last Carry ’ , on Bluesky. It jumped f...

I never say never use a certain device/technique/grammatical structure in a poem, because I believe we need to have access to all the tools ...

I have a new poem in The Oxonian Review . It's titled    ‘ Garbanzos Viudos ’  (i.e.   ‘ Widowed Chickpeas ’ ), and you can read it here...

Delighted to report that I've had another three recent poems in The Spectator over the past few weeks. Yet again, I'm grateful to t...

So far, I can't recommend Bluesky enough for poetry. Over the past few months, it's enabled me to connect with a lot of poetry peopl...

The encouragement to Tell It Slant! has become popular among many CW lecturers and workshop leaders over the last few years, seemingly as a...

Judging by the social media feeds of many significant poets and prominent publishers, there seems to be a tacit admission that they both bel...

If a poet believes they're being sidelined or deemed irrelevant by supposed gatekeepers, they might feel tempted to rail against the per...