Short and sweet..

Delighted to have a poem in Issue Three of The Compass Magazine - a beautifully designed and curated online poetry resource. Some wonderful poems here with my favourites by Pascale Petit and Liz Berry.
Poems that are unafraid to be true about their intentions - 


Mine is a playful poem really, written in the style of Les Murray, and with the idea of an 'islanders' mentality in mind, with all is positive and negative connotations.
I love observing things, closely. Have you ever looked at a bank of barnacles, millions of them encrusting rocks and piers and abandoned wood? There is a uniformity in their serried ranks, a pleasing efficiency in the way they occupy every millimetre of useful surface with their almost hexagonal forms, and then if you look up close, they are aged and new and all in between - there are larger misshapen individuals, tiny, neat ones that fit in a crevice, others snarled with threads of hair or twine, and each is marked with a tiny cross that will open like some strange space pod and wave in the salt wash in a mass feed as the tide comes.
The way they feel under bare feet too - almost painful and strong enough to resist human weight.


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Meanwhile, I am looking forward to the Liverpool launch of Slant Light soon and a London launch later this spring. I have sold a few books - hurray! 
I was also privileged to be a judge of the Greenwich University/PNSEL 2016  poetry competition.
It was interesting to be 'on the other side' of a poetry competition, reading anonymous entries, shortlisting and discussing them with the other judges. How subjective it is, and yet how clearly the winning poem announced itself despite our differing tastes.
It was interesting to hear some of the shortlisted poets read at the Made in Greenwich gallery last week and reminded me of how brave you have to be to stand up and read your words to an audience. 
I remember doing so at university and being absolutely terrified.
Happy Aprils, thanks for reading. I'll be back with a more interesting post soon.

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