blogs
The ‘life-altering’ diagnosis
The blurb on the back of ‘Outside Looking In’ says “What if you were given a life-altering diagnosis at 57? One that meant you aren’t who you thought you were? But one that explained everything?” ........
The Fear of the Blank Page
Every poet, every author knows this. They may not admit to it – or not in public – but if they’re human they’ll suffer from time to time. Either they’ve got what’s usually called writers’ block, o ........
Where’s the Poet? Or: to ‘be autistic’ or to ‘have autism’?
The first question may sound daft and the second rather pedantic, but they go to the heart of an issue many autistic people and their families wrestle with. If you say ‘I have autism’, it means t ........
Dawn
One of the poems in Outside Looking In is called Dawn. It has three stanzas of four, four and six lines. Instead of focusing on rhymes which is what I often use to give shape to my work, either at ........
Gender and Weinsteinism
There’s one poem in Outside Looking In which several people have asked me about. Who is the protagonist in ‘Obituary’? Even though you can’t libel the dead, and even though his behaviour was wrong, ........
How I Became a Poet
My blogs to date have focused on real life, rather than poetry. I should put that right now. I started life as a poet when I was around 16 and produced mounds of juvenilia that I copied lovingly i ........
Parenthood
Does it ever get any easier? Could it be more wonderful? I still remember the home visitor sticking a tiny trumpet on my stomach as I lay on our sofa, and heard, for the first time, that rapid ra ........