As I write this, my view is of our tiny back garden where through the open window I can hear a child crying, someone playing the drums, Mehboob’s mother calling him. If I stand at my front door, I can see that the corner-shop-which-used-to-be-a-pub is now open, the Kurdish family who run it, having come from miles away. This is …
Page and Stage and the Spaces Between by Harry Josephine Giles
A poem doesn’t exist, for me, until I’ve felt it in my mouth. They often begin with a catch of sound, an earworm that bothers me until I give it space to wriggle about on the page. Sometimes I’ll find myself trying out lines as I cycle along, the polyrhythmic framework of pedals and breath giving shape to the poem. …
The Alchemy of Language by Penelope Shuttle
Penelope Shuttle’s thirteenth poetry collection Lyonnesse was published by Bloodaxe in June 2021, fifty-three years after her first. We asked her to share some thoughts about what keeps a creative career alive throughout a lifetime.