Tag: swanwick

stars and doves

I don’t have many more shooting stars poems to post on the blog, but there are other things being celebrated this weekend, as well as the perseids.

It’s been several years since I’ve spent August in Spain, as I’ve attended the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, both as participant and as course leader, since I first won a place some years ago.

Before that, though, I was living in Madrid, and August was important en mi barrio for la fiesta de la Paloma. This year, Monday 15th August will be a fiesta nacional (la Asunción de la Virgen), and in her honour I have dug out this old poem. It was first published in the New Entertainer, I think, when I was writing my Capital Letters column:
Continue reading “stars and doves”

listening and reading

As well as the poetry course at Swanwick, I was also asked to lead the two showcase events. These were essentially poetry readarounds – a rather more restrained atmosphere than a normal open mike, but along those lines.

There were other showcase sessions on at the same time, in fiction and non-fiction, but we had a good turn out and it looked as if there would be far more people reading than there was time for.
Continue reading “listening and reading”

international language?

I’ve been back in the UK for the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School; hence the lack of updates here.

reflections on language
Swanwick: reflections on language

Early in the week there was a conversation over breakfast about “txt-speke” and emoticons. Personally, I loathe emoticons, Continue reading “international language?”