Zonal by Don Paterson review – rich, masked musings on midlife crisis
The prize-winning poet’s new collection, inspired by The Twilight Zone, is a witty, wily hall of mirrorsThere is a scene in the black-and-white sci-fi TV programme The Twilight Zone, created by Rod...
View ArticleCaroline West Duah obituary
My friend Caroline West Duah, who has died aged 78, was at heart a poet, although the course of her life meant she was unable to devote as much time to writing poetry as she would have liked.She was...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Safe Houses by Bernard O’Donoghue
Wondering where the house keys are sets off a chain of associations leading to a much larger questionSafe HousesI find that I have started recentlyto keep spare keys to the front doorin several...
View ArticleCarol Ann Duffy leads British poets creating 'living record' of coronavirus
Major names including Imtiaz Dharker, Jackie Kay and father-and-son poets Ian and Andrew McMillan to document outbreak in verse Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCarol Ann...
View ArticleBullfinches and robins take back control of our gardens | Brief letters
Martin Kettle’s pandemic prescience | Bullfinches | Robins | PPE | Unusual children’s namesOur garage toilet doubles as a storage place for literature we struggle to throw away – like old issues of the...
View ArticleLake District invaded for Wordsworth centenary – archive, 22 Apr 1950
22 April 1950 From Europe and America, a distinguished army of scholars, poets and philosophers have assembled to honour the great poet Grasmere, FridayThe Wordsworth centenary celebrations have begun....
View ArticlePoems to get us through: The First Geniuses by Billy Collins
Carol Ann Duffy continues her series of poems chosen from her shelves to comfort and inspire us in isolation. Here, a work that travels back before the start of civilisationBorn in New York City, Billy...
View ArticleKaitlyn Aurelia Smith's lockdown listening: 'Doing handstands, that’s the...
The LA ambient composer shares what she’s been listening to while upside down, from Caribou to Zimbabwean polyrhythmsI live in Los Angeles with my husband in a quiet neighbourhood that looks out on the...
View ArticleFirst Nations people have faced moments like this before. We can learn from...
From Oodgeroo Noonuccal and Alexis Wright to Ali Cobby Eckermann and Kerry Reed-Gilbert, poetry can show us the collective power of careThis is not unprecedented.Not the presence of a new disease. Not...
View ArticleReasons to be cheerful: poetry and stories to give hope to adults and...
Children’s author Katherine Rundell introduces original poems, stories and illustrations by the likes of Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson and Axel SchefflerWe have always given each other strange...
View ArticleWilliam Wordsworth's 250th anniversary marked with mass readings
Stephen Fry and Brian Cox have joined descendants of the great Romantic and members of the public to record a host of his poemsStephen Fry and Brian Cox’s sonorous tones can be heard declaiming William...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The New Divan by Edwin Morgan
To mark what would have been his 100th birthday, three pieces from his 100-part ‘war poem’ that is also about a forbidden loveThree poems from The New Divan1.Hafiz, old nightingale, what fires there...
View ArticlePoems to get us through: I Need by Imtiaz Dharker
The former poet laureate picks favourites from her bookshelves to comfort us in isolation. In this poem, the writer reflects on her heritage to evoke sensuous delight … and longingRecipient of the...
View ArticleContemporary artistic works mark 75th anniversary of VE Day
Online exhibition of art, poetry and music explores themes around conflict and victoryWhen the Spanish illustrator Cristina Daura was asked to contribute to a collection of artistic works to mark the...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Chess Player by Howard Altmann
A peaceful, lightly surreal scene is shadowed with wider forebodingThe Chess PlayerThey’ve left. They’ve all left.The pigeon feeders have left.The old men on the benches have left.The white-gloved...
View ArticleRoger Robinson's poems of Trinidad and London win Ondaatje prize
A Portable Paradise is the second poetry collection to win £10,000 award for a book that conjures ‘the spirit of a place’Interview: ‘I want these poems to help people to practise empathy’ Roger...
View ArticleLeading writers take up 'darkness residencies' for art project
Bernardine Evaristo, Max Porter and Raymond Antrobus rise to artist Sam Winston’s challenge in A Delicate Sight to submit to time in blackoutSome of the UK’s most acclaimed authors, from the Folio...
View ArticleMichael McClure, a famed San Francisco Beat poet, dies at age 87
His early work was overshadowed by Allen Ginsberg but McClure outlasted the Beats in a career that spanned more than 60 yearsMichael McClure, one of the famed Beat poets of San Francisco whose career...
View ArticlePoems to get us through: the ghosts of cricketing summers knock Kit Wright...
The Roller in the Woods by Kit Wright is this week’s choice, as Carol Ann Duffy continues her series of poems chosen from her shelves to comfort us in isolationWell-loved as a poet for both children...
View ArticleHarry Garuba obituary
My mentor and friend Harry Olúdáre Garuba, who has died of leukaemia aged 61, was a poet and professor of English and African studies at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. A self-effacing but...
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