Some news etc.

Hello folks!

I baked a Christmas cake yesterday. For some reason I opened the door half-way through the baking time. I don’t know why I did that. To check on it I suppose. But I’ve baked the same vegan recipe for the last four years and I know to leave it alone until the timer goes off at the end. Needless to say, the cake had sunk in the middle when it finished baking. Oh well, it’s now just a delicious fruitcake that we can enjoy straightaway. Lesson learned.

I made peace with making mistakes about small things like this a while ago. Most things are salvageable or can be remade. And if they can’t, staying upset past the initial disappointment isn’t going to make anything better. I’ve already got the fruit soaking in rum for my next attempt. Roll on Stir Up Sunday!

And now for the second edition of my newsletter.

Some places you can find me/my work…

Now…

You can catch my words in the following three books. Any one of them would make an excellent gift for the poet or poetry lover in your life, especially the last one.

Mapping the Future (Bloodaxe Books) - I have a selection of poems in this anthology that brings together all the poets from The Complete Works.

Poetry Projects to Make and Do (Nine Arches Press) - I have an essay in the latest in Nine Arches’ series of books on the craft of writing. It’s on the joys and challenges of responding to a poetry commission.

Poems as Friends (The Poetry Exchange) - If you don’t know about The Poetry Exchange, you’re in for a treat! It’s a gorgeous, pure-hearted, gift of an organisation. A healing balm in this difficult world. I don’t have a poem in this anthology but I do share why Jackie Kay’s poem In My Country is a ‘friend’ to me.

If you like the idea of poems as friends, I can recommend checking out The Poetry Exchange’s podcast. Why not start with this one?

…and then

Has it really been a a year since my first full-length collection, Proof of Life on Earth, came out? Here I am having a wee chat about it with Peach from Lighthouse, an independent bookshop in Edinburgh. The chat starts with my poem I’ll never protest as well as Nina Simone and I’m pretty decent company, if I do say so myself. If you’ve got a spare twenty minutes, grab yourself a cuppa and have a listen.    

Some words on words

There is nothing lost if we take the time to choose our words more carefully. That remains true whether we commit them to print, share them online or speak them aloud. We can't control how people interpret the things we say, but there’ll be fewer chances for our words to be distorted.

I wish the UK’s former Home Secretary (and others) would heed this advice. But I don’t suppose she cares about the consequences of her rhetoric. She only cares about playing to the jingoistic crowd who lap up everything she says. Amplifying and spreading her dehumanising words like a virus.

Braverman is a symptom of an illness in our government but not the cause of it. I’m glad she’s gone but let’s not kid ourselves that her distorted and dangerous views have gone with her.

Some books you can read for free…

Since starting my PhD I discovered that there are loads of free ebooks accessible via Open Access. It's mainly academic books but some other publishers have them too.

Here’s a link to all the open access books from Pluto Books, including a biography of Paul Robeson.

Here's a link to the open access books from Routledge.

I don't know how accessible some of these books will be in terms of being easy to read, but at least you can access them!

If you've come across an interesting Open Access title, let me know.

Something else that caught my attention…

This month it’s the new Beatles song.

Well, ‘caught my attention’ is a bit of an understatement. Coverage on the 'final' song from The Beatles was pretty ubiquitous.

Many people have been surprised by their response to this last Beatles song, including me. I’ve cried each time I’ve heard it. Partly because it connects me with the child I was when I first fell in love with The Beatles. It also brings back all the moments their music provided a soundtrack to my teens. But more than that, it’s the space the song creates for grief to resurface.

Listening to Now and Then reminds me that grief is a part of life, not something to feared or denied.

But the thing that surprised me most is this video about the making of the song. The way it illustrates the passing of time. Seeing The Beatles all together as young men. Then seeing George, Paul and Ringo as middle aged men working together again. And finally, just Paul and Ringo, elders reflecting on their astonishing life together. 

You can hear the wonder and magic of it all as Paul marvels at Peter Jackson's MAL technology.

“And there it was: John’s Voice.” 

And right at the end of this little video - which had me crying pretty much throughout - there’s a helpful tip for all us procrastinators from Paul. “DIN, son. Do it now.”

That’s all from me for now. Thanks for reading.