My first ever short story. Originally published online January 2015 as part of a failed M.A. in Creative Writing at NTU that I walked away from. The Leash We cannot start from what we do not know we can only start from what we know The leash to the greyhound tightened around her red raw…
creative writing M.A.
A BAD MAP OF THE POETRY WORLD
Having dipped my toe in Poetry World UK again I starting to get my bearings. Here a online statistics crib that may tell some of the story: Poetry book sales in the UK Source: https://wordsrated.com/poetry-book-sales-statistics/ It not great. The biggest news to me as a 65 year old male is that the demographics of actual…
Edwin Smith revisited – Catching Light
Back in October 2014 (now three years ago) I was on the first term of a Creative Writing M.A. at NTU. I was also with uncanny timing commissioned (the first and so far the only time I been commissioned) by R.I.B.A. through Apple and Snakes to write in response to a lovely collection of Edwin…
Well I Never….until now…..chocks away Henry..
The past two weeks have been both liberating and slightly scary. Having jumped ship so to speak from the Cruise liner NTU ( currently headed for Corporate Tax Haven Islands with a monetising Captain whilst flying a pure blue Tory ensign) I have had a few days to ponder what next… I currently have two…
The Broken Brush: Writing and Painting?
I have not posted in this writing blog for a while due to a full-time commitment to painting in preparation for the Lady Bay Arts show in West Bridgford on the weekend of 16th and 17th May. The actual physical act of painting has made me look at my writing ‘block’ in a different way and…
Dead Cat Bounce
The photo above shows in their entirety the new  poetry books I  have aquired since the defining moment of the Salt pamphlet ‘Last Farmer’ in December 2010. The only other books missing are the Helen Mort Wordsworth trust pamphlet and my fellow Salt Modern Voices. I have separated them as I regard December 2010 as a break…
Let’s go to Sacramento…Diesel on Gravel again
OK so this is news that stays news as they say… In 1963-4 Raymond Carver left the Iowa Writers Workshop..he drove to Sacramento. I have just metaphorically done the same only I don’t have a car and cannot drive (his was a battered Chevrolet not a Cadillac by the way). I hinted at this news in…
My First Short Story: The Leash
My first ever short story. The Leash We cannot start from what we do not know we can only start from what we know The leash to the greyhound tightened around her red raw hand. Across the river the lights of the car factory flickered and bounced in the water and she finally let go….
Edwin Smith Poem – now online at RIBA website
RIBA have finally put up the poem…so you can read it now I provided a ‘referenced’ version and a ‘clean’ none annotated version they went with referenced…strangely but there you go ‘Catching Light’….I have also provided a recording of myself reading (no footnotes;-) which will be uploaded later I presume.
How to stop being a poet.
For my creative writing course I have to produce an ‘Influence’ essay by next Monday and it proving to be a really hard call for me. Not because the essay in itself difficult (see previous post) but because it like a blood-letting leach to a sick patient in terms of the whys and wherefores of…