Gap Year
After 45 years, I reconnected with my inspirational high school English teacher, John Foggin. Right, Blackford, ‘ere’s what we’re gonna do. We’re each gonna write a poem a week for a year an’ see what ‘appens. What happened was, we won the 2014 Sentinel Poetry Book Prize. Unbelievable.
The Last Train
I promise my second solo collection isn’t as bleak as the cover might suggest. There are a couple of sombre poems (the combined results of ambitious surgery and encroaching senility) but I hope they’re balanced by the superficial whimsy to which I’m incurably addicted.
Everything is Perfect
That ‘everything is perfect’ is a particular way of looking at the world without judging it or feeling the need to ‘fix’ it. It’s hard for our self-centred little minds to cultivate such a degree of equanimity. I certainly can’t. Hence the dent in the egg.
By The Way
In this my fourth collection, I explore momentous issues like the deteriorating race relations between Kittiwakes and Herring Gulls, how to look after a pet Secret, the ever-growing digital tail of Pi, and how I nearly got bloody electrocuted in Switzerland.
Man of the World
Named after a song by my hero Peter Green of the original Fleetwood Mac. The cover shot is of me at Runswick Bay, when I was a member of the band Spreadeagle. I always liked the idea of being a rock star much more than the hard work required to become one.