Gerald Hughes obituary
Brother of the poet Ted Hughes and an important influence on his work“What’s the first thing you think of?” Ted Hughes asked himself in the title of one of his poems. To which the answer was: “My...
View ArticleRupi Kaur: 'There was no market for poetry about trauma, abuse and healing’
The young Punjabi-Sikh poet made a career by forcing herself into places where she’s least expected – like Instagram and the New York Times bestseller listRupi Kaur is planning what she calls a dinner...
View ArticleNight.—Northeaster
by Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941)Night.—Northeaster.—Roar of soldiers.—Roar of waves.Wine cellars raided.—Down every street,every gutter—a flood, a precious flood,and in it, dancing, a moon the colour of...
View ArticlePoem of the Week: Theocritus: A Villanelle by Oscar Wilde
Wilde riffs on the Greek poet Theocritus’s depictions of lovers, using sounds to embody meaning with lasting appeal to the earO singer of Persephone! In the dim meadows desolate Dost thou remember...
View ArticleLiverpool gives Oscar Wilde a good showing in exhibition on his friend | Letters
Readers interested in Oscar Wilde need not wait until late September or travel to Paris to view rare and unique items associated with him (Paris exhibition to celebrate life and work of Oscar Wilde,...
View ArticleTake a poetic ferry trip across the Mersey | Letters
I was delighted to visit the exhibition mentioned in your letter (31 August) because Richard Le Galienne is one of the Merseyside poets I have included in an exhibition of first world war poets and...
View ArticleBooks to give you hope: Staying Alive – Real Poems for Unreal Times
In a rotten year, when public language has been poisoned by politics and prejudice, the personal integrity of poetry can keep us going• Why we’re writing about books to give you hope this summer“Hope...
View ArticleHow the Great Fire of London spawned a great literature of loss – and renewal
Pepys and Evelyn were the most famous chroniclers of the fire, but it also inspired a few amateurs and hacks...One of the more surprising consequences of the fire that destroyed London 350 years ago...
View ArticlePoster poems: madness
From the insanity found in modern politics to the genuine tragedies of mental illness, this month we want your prose to help us find sense in the worldWe live in a mad, mad world. If you don’t believe...
View ArticlePoetic Artifice: A Theory of 20th-Century Poetry by Veronica Forrest-Thomson...
This classic study, reprinted after more than 30 years, prefers bad new things to good old onesThe death of Veronica Forrest-Thomson in 1975, aged just 27, is among the most galling and tragic losses...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: El Desdichado
by Katharine Towers On failing to translate NervalNot that I had wished to meet the Widowernor any man who calls himself the Unconsoled.But there he was, stepping from the wreckage of his tower,harp...
View ArticleVoices above the chaos: female war poets from the Middle East
The carnage in Turkey and Syria has led to a blossoming of poetry – with women at the forefront. Here, two of them, one Syrian and one Kurdish, tell their storiesThe Syrian city of Aleppo crumbles into...
View ArticlePoem of the Week: In a dream she meets him again by Maura Dooley
The luminosity of spring is captured in this short poem, one that rings with an ethereal, dreamlike atmosphereIn a dream she meets him againThe trees shake their leavesin this loveliest of springslit...
View ArticleHera Lindsay Bird: I prefer poetry that allows room for ugliness and error
The New Zealander has become a cult favourite for her explicit, cutting and often funny writing. But, she says, you can’t judge poems by page viewsIt’s a midwinter Monday night and Hera Lindsay Bird –...
View ArticleBBC2 to compete for Saturday night audience with season of culture
From autumn, channel will focus on arts including poetry and dance, with intention of making BBC2 a ‘cultural destination’BBC2 is entering the Saturday night ratings battle, taking on The X Factor,...
View ArticleBrexit poems and dirty limericks: poetry left in boxes across Exmoor to be...
More than 6,000 poems, including ones about Brexit and marriage proposals, left in boxes over the last three years, will be considered for publicationFollowing in the footsteps of Wordsworth and...
View ArticleSharon Olds wins $100,000 Wallace Stevens poetry award
The American poet, who has also won the TS Eliot prize and the Pulitzer, is credited for her ‘outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry’American poet Sharon Olds has won the $100,000...
View ArticleLemn Sissay: ‘I begin work trying to describe dawn in 140 characters’
The author on poetic tweeting and finding poetry in the art of Tracey Emin and in the lyrics of Amy Winehouse and AdeleI wake at 5.25am. My alarm starts at 5.30am. It plays “Lovely Day” by Bill...
View ArticleSay Something Back by Denise Riley review – heartfelt and deeply necessary
Denise Riley’s latest collection, much of which is about her late son, has qualities that place it apart from other poetryIt sometimes seems that contemporary poetry divides into two sorts – those...
View ArticleGordon Hodgeon obituary
My friend Gordon Hodgeon, who has died aged 75, was a poet, teacher, teacher-trainer and arts activist and a hugely influential figure in the worlds of education, publishing and poetry in the...
View Article
