The words breathed on the page and I lost them. But where were my eyes? Too outside myself, or too deep inside. My voice became ostracised. For me, the narrative voice and distance of the narrator is one of the most interesting aspects of a poem or novel. A text should be like an entity of…
Sardines to poems – Goldberg, O’Hara and changing meaning
This painting by Modernist Artist, Michael Goldberg inspired one of my favorite modernist poets, Frank O’Hara to write ‘Why I am not a Painter’. The artist started off inspired by some sardines but as the painting changed it came to resemble something entirely different with only the word ‘SARDINES’ remaining. Whilst the resulting poem, is…
ONE DAY by David Nicholls
I was recently reminded of one of my favourite books the other day when I was over for dinner at J’s parent’s house: One Day by David Nicholls. It is beautifully written and you really do come away feeling like you have been close friends with Em and Dex, Dex and Em for years. My copy soon started to…
A back to basics approach to getting involved with politics – Ideology & Political Parties.
Happy election month! It seems these days ‘Politics’ is a very boring word associated less with human rights and democracy and more with greed, complex bills and acts, and men in suits shouting at each other across the House of Commons on Wednesdays. So lets put the rhetoric aside for now and strip it down…
Speaking at the Parachive Conference
This month, I attended the Pararchive: Connected Communities conferences hosted by the University of Leeds. The aim of the project is to co-produce a new ‘open’ digital resource that will allow anyone to search and collect on-line resources and to combine them with their own media (film, photographs and other ephemera) in order to tell their…
Poem for the Hillsborough disaster by Carol Ann Duffy
Really touching poem by Carol Ann Duffy about the Hillsborough disaster. The Cathedral bell, tolled, could never tell; nor the Liver Birds, mute in their stone spell; or the Mersey, though seagulls wailed, cursed, overhead, in no language for the slandered dead… not the raw, red throat of the Kop, keening, or the cops’ words, censored…
First Collection ~ A poem about tired life and struggling Greece
My first collection of poetry, Fragments of Urban Life: a kind mess is now complete and submitted to the university – finally! Definitely in for an exciting and equally disappointing road ahead. But to celebrate the mild achievement of completion – here is a sample poem:-
Students – Please go out and vote in Local Elections tomorrow!
Tomorrow, activists up and down the country will be setting their alarms for 5am to deliver ‘Good Morning’ leaflets to residents up and down the country. Many of them will continue with little rest until polling stations close; and finally at 10pm, tired and weary they will make their way to the pub. But some…
Rupert Murdoch – The Great Pretender (response of the media, Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Ed Miliband to the phone hacking committee)
I have been fairly silent on the phone hacking issue since Hugh Grant appeared on Question Time, mainly because I’m finding the whole thing a bit consuming and uninspiring. Other news has been completely sidelined and whilst I believe (and have always believed might I add) that it is completely unfair for News International to have so much…
The Death of Amy Winehouse: a true artist who lost her flare to drugs and alcohol
The sun has beat down on Sheffield all day today and I have been making the most of it, dancing about on Devonshire Green at the Tramlines music festival. Checking my phone I had a couple of text messages and twitter updates telling me that Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in…
Are the Royals really that bad? (Kate Middleton and Prince William on tour in Canada, role models, and modernising the monarchy)
As a Liberal, it may come as a surprise to some of you that I am a bit of an unashamed royalist. In the present day there are certainly anti-royalists around, but in general the air is more of disinterest rather than hate of our country’s heritage and in particular, our Royal Family. People simply…
Oh, hey there Hugh! (Hugh Grant on Question Time, phone hacking and Rupert Murdoch’s hold on the government)
This week dashing actor, Hugh Grant decided to take a break from the red carpet and stepped instead onto the green grass of Collage Green. Seeing Hugh Grant talking politics, suited up for the BBC cameras is not a regular occurrence to those of us who are more used to thinking of Vince Cable and…
Hannah Claytor 