And throw away the key
I am coming to the end of a week of peregrinations around Cornwall. In Poetry Therapy, Nick Mazza talks about there being a receptive element (reading, listening, watching) and an expressive side (writing, talking, showing). A week ago, I was teaching at Trebah Gardens with [...]
A feast of losses
Some poems yield deeper and different insights on each reading. One reason I love working in groups is, that when poems are read aloud, in different voices, there’s always a nuance or new register that brings the poem differently alive. I woke up this morning [...]
Songs from the throats of the old gods
I am preparing materials for a workshop on Saturday on Poetry and Mindfulness at Trebah Gardens in Cornwall (pictured) – details here. One of the poems I want to share is by David Wagoner, called The Silence of the Stars. You can read it here. [...]
Quick, now, here, now, always –
Here’s the first section of T.S. Eliot’s FOUR QUARTETS, BURNT NORTON – but if you have ten minutes to spare, click here to hear Ted Hughes reading it, transforming the words on the page into breath and music with the satisfying hiss of a reel-to-reel [...]
Feeling good
Do you have to be good? Mary Oliver’s poem Wild Geese opens emphatically saying no - ‘You do not have to be good’. A common way to begin a poetry therapy session is to ask members of a group, after reading a poem, which line or lines stand out [...]
Life-Size Him
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish he’d go away... I’ve had this ditty in my head most of my life but only now learn that it has an interesting provenance and [...]
