Used the two lines I wrote in Sean O' Brien's workshop for Nottingham Poetry Society as the start of a sonnet called 'Rail Link'.  Not sure how they came about - I wrote them out as 6 lines, but realised they could be two trochaic (?) pentameter

Renamed it 'A Seal Is Harpooned' - weird how the image of the seal appeared BECAUSE of the rhyme scheme, the need to have a rhyme for 'wound' (ie. 'harpooned').  Rules ARE creative, I see that now.  And even 'free verse' MUST have, if not a

The rd1r has crystallised my ideas and galvanised me.  I've commited myself to writing, or at least exploring, the sonnet form.  Need to look at Neruda, Hopkins, Lorca, Berryman, Shakespeare...  I've already begun a sonnet which I'm

Reading 'Poetry Today - A Critical Guide To British Poetry 1960-1995' by Anthony Thwaite (Longman 1996).  Am I even interested in British poetry?  Rd1 coming on, but need to refer to other poets more, especially with reference to experiment

Reading through Greg's 'A History Of Gay Literature'.  Also just bought Germaine Greer's 'The Boy'.  I feel confident about this new thematic focus.  What I must now push for is a very clear idea of 'craft research'.  I have this

No feedback on 'Caedmon', 'Fruity', 'Snipers', 'The Farmer's Wife', 'Kylie Minogue' and 'Warhol'.  The meeting with Greg and Catherine last Monday was a prep session for the RD1R submission, which looks like it might have to be June 22nd. 

Caedmon.  Yes I should keep just the two voices, Hilda and Wulfstan.  Between them they tell Caedmon's story.  I don't like the Caedmon part.  Some interesting rhyming going on, a few nice lines, but too slow for a sequential blow

In the last week have brought the Warhol poem to something like completion.  Its end connects with its beginning, to make an analogy with his typical artistic processes (and his endless fame?).  I'm starting to like this way of trying to sa

Just finished 'The Body For Beginners' (Dani Cavallero, Writers and Readers Pub. Inc. 1998) - a very good overview of themes I should be plundering. This past Easter holiday I tried to return to 'Caedmon', because angels are important - but couldn't

I admire the intellectual rigour of Holub and the way he tackles the biggest philosophical issues from bizarre angles.  He sounds like the Old Testament spliced with a textbook on immunology.  The vocabulary is exciting, but I do think some