Wow. That was intense. Three hours on a hard bench listening to poetry readings with no break and no refreshments. That’s a real test. Luckily it was an open-air event, on the boardwalk at Hastings (the Barbados one, not the UK one). It was easy to get up and stretch your legs occasionally, and the [...]
Tag Archives | poetry

Giveaway: “The World’s Wife” by Carol Ann Duffy
I picked up a free copy of this in New Beacon Books – there was a stack of them left over from World Book Night earlier this year. It says inside the back cover that I’m supposed to pass it on to someone else to read and enjoy, so if you’d like a copy, please [...]

“Crow” by Ted Hughes
I rarely read poetry, but I enjoyed this strange little book by Ted Hughes. It’s full of dark imagery, violence and unexpected humour. The poems read like myths of the origins of the world, except that at the middle of them all is Crow, this anarchic, chaotic, ugly, violent figure, playing tricks on God and [...]

“T.S. Eliot” by Peter Ackroyd
I hardly ever read poetry, but for some reason T.S. Eliot’s poetry speaks to me. Perhaps it’s because, like Eliot, I used to work at a bank in the City of London, and the feeling of his poems is the exact feeling I had as a ‘Hollow Man’ looking at the masses of other Hollow [...]

Wislawa Szymborska
Just discovered the work of Wislawa Szymborska through a poem reprinted in an old edition of New Internationalist from last year. It was called Psalm and I thought it was a beautiful and humorous poem, perfectly illustrating the absurdity of man-made borders. Here are the first few lines to give an idea: How leaky are [...]
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The 20 best Caribbean book blogs
1 October 2012
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The cafe killer
29 October 2012
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Liebster Award reloaded
1 November 2012
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The Kindle Report: does it beat paper?
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The next big thing…
4 January 2013
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We could take a train, be miles away by morning…
6 May 2013
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Ten years ago: Voluntary poverty in New York City
30 April 2013
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Some interviews
22 April 2013
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Giveaway: Granta Best of Young British Novelists 2003
18 April 2013
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How to Improve your Foreign Language Immediately
15 April 2013
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Geo Marquez: week*...
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Geo Marquez: I read for 9 hours a day of pure science fiction a...
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Evan: What I'm starting to think here is that the refer...
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Brian Joseph: Sounds like a super trip. Have a great time Andrew...
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Charlie: All the best to you both. Crete most definitely b...

