Change, change — that’s what the terns scream down at their seaward rocks;fleet clouds and salt kiss — everything else is provisional, us and all our works. — ‘Fianuis’ by Kathleen Jamie This paper was originally delivered as a talk at Poetry, Representation and the Archive, a symposium hosted by the University of East Anglia on 25th May 2023. My practice […]
Tag archives: poems
On Frogs
Link to audio/podcast version of this post. This poem was first published in issue 19 of Gramarye, the Journal of the Chichester Centre for Fairy Tales, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction. ‘Gramarye’ is an archaic word meaning mystical or magical learning, related to the word ‘grimoire’, which refers to a spellbook. Frogs in folklore seem to […]
Long Poem Magazine #28
I’m finding most, if not all, of the poems published alongside mine in the latest issue of Long Poem magazine instantly appeal to me, before I’ve even started reading them, and I think it’s because of the length stipulation. As its name suggest, Long Poem is for poems of 50 lines or more, and this […]
Playing Poetry Exhibition
The Playing Poetry exhibition is on display at the National Poetry Library from now until 15th January, and includes one of my digital ludokinetic poems, Erratum (a work in progress), as well as Adversary, a prototype poetry card game I made with Abigail Parry, pictured above. There was a neat write-up in the Financial Times […]
I’m Naming the Swifts
Added a new version of this old (2010) poem to the website’s gashopon machine/lucky dip today:
Raceme no.13 / Another Labyrinth
I have two new poems in Bristol-based journal Raceme no.13, both titled ‘Another Labyrinth’. Below is a poster I’ve made for one of them. If you find it a little difficult to understand at first, that’s likely because it’s actually a puzzle-poem based on the well-known ’15 puzzle’ — a set of sliding numbered blocks […]
Back to School
School of Forgery is out in paperback, after being out of print for nearly half a decade. I’ve written a new version of the blurb for my website, and it goes like this:School of Forgery is handily divided into two sections: Originals and Fakes. It’s possible, however, that there might have been some cross-contamination between […]
3:AM Magazine / Squelettes
It’s Raymond Queneau versus the Skeletons! Three of my ‘Squelettes’ sequence are up at 3:AM Magazine. Any gamers out there will recognise Domino Hurley, Spinal and Undead Hero as the subjects of these short poems.Background: my PhD explores the overall interplay between poetry and games. At the most basic level, I’m interested in the intermedial […]
Poetic Interviews
“ How will you attempt to turn the sands back once more? … I’ll tell you how, but first, hear that? The guard’s asleep. He’s churring like a pylon, and that sparkling laugh? I’d say that that’s the keys he gathers at his hip. Aaron Kent (@godzillakent) runs Poetic Interviews, where interviews are carried out […]
Poetry London / The Self-Made Man Design Document
I have won this year’s Poetry London competition, judged by Sean O’Brien, and I’ll be reading the winning poem at the following event in September (that’s me on the right, see, with my name underneath my face):The poem is called ‘The Self-Made Man’. You can read it on the Poetry London website – but before […]