Sunday, November 12, 2017

Remembrance

Today is the UK's Remembrance Sunday. Seeing the preparations for this commemoration in the last few days, during the country's four-year-long programme of events to mark the centenary of the First World War, I am reminded of our connection, for better and for worse, to Europe's history. Let us hope that such commemorations are meaningful commitments to keeping the peace in Europe, which was an important motivation for the founding of what has become the European Union.

My first collection, Arc, contains a poem for my great uncle, a man I never knew who died in the First World War. I'm sharing it with you here.



Friday, November 10, 2017

Resurgence

The results for the Resurgence Poetry Prize 2017 are out and I am pleased to see that one of my poems, 'Fractures', has been commended by the judges. Resurgence draws attention to ecological issues as well as attracting a very high standard of entries, as you'll see from the winning poems and the rest of the commended poems, which can all be viewed here.
My poem was inspired by the documentary Gasland and reports about the consequences of melting tundra as a result of global warming.