A new poem in The Oxonian Review

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

Our next Rogue Strands poetry reading...

With a stellar line-up that would grace any of the top poetry festivals in the country, our next Rogue Strands Poetry Reading is in London on 22nd October at the Devereux Pub, proceedings kicking off at 6.45p.m.. Our featured poets are Hannah Copley, Jonathan Davidson, Fiona Larkin, Philip Hancock, Mat Riches and myself. We'd be delighted if you could join us...!

Three recent poems in The Spectator

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 their poetry editor, Hugo Williams, for his support of my writing, and to Clare Asquith for her work in the background. 

Poetry on Bluesky

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 people who were new to me, while also finding a whole host of additional readers from beyond the poetry bubble. One excellent example has been the reception for my poem ‘The Last Carry’, first published in The Spectator and then included in my second collection, Whatever You Do, Just Don't (HappenStance Press, 2023). As of today, it's garnered well over 600 likes and more than 100 shares, all along with numerous generous comments from readers. This is the nearest I've ever come to going viral! In fact, not a week goes by without a trip or two to the post office for me with books that I've sold via Bluesky. From my experience, it's really worthwhile in terms of finding a new audience for my poems, though perhaps the most significant bit has been the lovely people I've encountered on there...!

Telling It Slant

The encouragement to Tell It Slant! has become popular among many CW lecturers and workshop leaders over the last few years, seemingly as a natural extension of the old favourite, Show, Don’t Tell!, but what does it actually mean?

Well, it refers to an approach to writing that veers away from dealing with stuff head-on. Its inherent attraction lies in the opportunity it provides for the poet to explore new perspectives and fresh takes on seemingly tired subjects by coming at them via unusual angles, often omitting bits that would be obvious if treated directly, thus intriguing and challenging the reader. As such, its use is widely seen to be lending the poem extra gravitas and depth.

However, there are also consequent risks in its deployment. One is the accusation that the poet is being wilfully obtuse, frustrating the reader, playing a pointless game by holding back information, the absence of which creates the false impression of extra layers to the poem that actually don’t exist. And another is its tempting propensity for enabling emotional shortcuts that skirt round the potential core of the poem.

From my perspective, Tell It Slant! is useful as a weapon in a creative armoury. However, its overuse in contemporary poetry as an all-encompassing method leads poets down a blind alley, causing many poems to fizzle out before they can take their reader on a journey. And for my money, that journey is where poetic truth is found.

Five Reasons...

Do you still need a reason to read Whatever You Do, Just Don't?! Well, Andy Hopkins has generously (and with great insight) written at length on his blog about five good reasons for doing so. You can find out what they are by following this link!

The undercutting of everything that came before, Richie McCaffery’s Skail

While maintaining many characteristic traits of his poetry, such as the portrayal of relationships and the human significance of objects, all within the context of condensed lyric snapshots, Richie McCaffery’s new pamphlet, Skail (New Walk Editions, 2025), also offers its readers a glimpse into the new routes that his writing is exploring.

To start with, there’s his abandonment of the first person in much of the collection, many of the poems referring to a ‘you’ and a ‘he’. This decision on McCaffery’s part not only generates greater distance between the poet and his characters, but also highlights a fresh filter of external observation.

This above-mentioned use of reportage relates to a constant questioning and doubting of certainties that runs through the pamphlet. Of special interest is McCaffery’s repeated use of specific words. For instance, ‘but’ crops up on no less than thirteen occasions in these twenty pages of poems, while ‘though’ appears eight times. What’s more, they’re employed together in certain poems, one after the other, as in the closing stanza to the title poem…

But the bulk of his ash was left to her, and went
headfirst into the remains of the vegetable bed.
And though it was a wet night, the dust cloud of him
hovered under the streetlamp, as if getting its bearings.

At several points throughout the collection, ‘but’ acts as a hinge, starting a last line or a final stanza, just like in the above example, indicating a change in tone as McCaffery homes in on the core of his inspiration. And then in the poem’s concluding clause, ‘as if’, another of McCaffery’s favoured turns of phrase, also kicks in with a leap that lends the poem an extra layer.

When looking at this quatrain in depth, it becomes clear to the reader that those three devices (‘but’, ‘though’ and ‘as if’) all undercut each other in turn. Absolutes no longer exist in vital and linguistic terms. Supposedly modest and clear-cut words suddenly take on unexpected new ramifications.

This additional depth of nuance is to be savoured by any reader, but especially by McCaffery aficionados. Skail evokes the undercutting of everything that came before it, hinting at riches to come in his future writing, a significant landmark on his continuing poetic journey.