Making letters

Muse, come to this blankness and take my unrequited offer to hold and stroke your shape to form. Rest here where fingertips may take their pleasured time with you. Today we have all day until 6pm when I’m due out. Muse, come in and be a while. My page is yours. — The poem above

This falling debris is your life

Borage Flower by Yummifruitbat (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons Accept This falling debris is your life; Too late to snap the hinge. Your children’s children will collect cast snakeskins along this route on which you will breathe your last Even with your eyes still open and your legs that drag on.

The evening of score

By Kulmalukko (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)%5D, Dead pigeon via Wikimedia Commons The evening of score You will stand at a window The clouds will part. A dead pigeon will fall down thud down at your feet. The day will turn. We now bar the exits. Cower. Plead. Waste your breath. — As mentioned

Pictures in the sky

“An Artist Works” was inspired by Constable’s cloud study dated ‘evening, 31 August 1822’. The English painter produced these close observations of the skies during 1821 and 1822 in Hampstead, North London where he spent his summers in the early 1820s.

And a

One two three four One two three. And a oneity two three four one two three _ [fine] Oneity oneity oneity oneity oneity two three four-a yeah ah peep for Parp twoity three _ Oneity two me four this song’s three four-a want to join me? Catch twoity three _ [Da capo] — The beginning/end-of-the

Ask the Poet

In response to the questions often posed to me about my writing, I have decided to introduce a new feature on my blog: Please explain… Send in your questions about a particular poem, a running theme or even a line that puzzles you. If you’re curious about the creative process behind a poem’s existence, you may

The Superhero of pre-used words

‘The Poet’ (a find from the archives) was composed from lines written on the tube after reading the freebie magazine The Short List: you’ll need to use me again tomorrow because our words are all pre-used but if you set me down in words and lines then published me I’m already seen and done cutting edge A

Poem 104

Escucha My new muse is light in his visits, is late, never calls, smiles his cheek, tells me nothing. So I invent everything. My new muse wears white-soled trainers and a St. Christopher tucked against the tattoo, never seen in full. When the night begins, the muse’s t-shirt smells of clean laundry. My new muse

What is a letter?

A letter is…

You can give a heart on any day

This handmade heart hangs from a nail above my desk. I don’t remember on which day it was given to me, yet it carries more sentimental meaning than any Valentine’s token I’ve ever received. This heart has shadowed many of my poetry journeys. It has travelled with me from Cape Town to San Diego, to South America, to