On Friday at South Street Poets Café I read a poem about driving to Croydon/Crystal Palace, the futility of doing so and what you can do if and when you get there.

This is intended as a subjective introduction to the music of Martyn Joseph. I would suggest the first port of call might be this video, especially where he introduces and plays ‘Driving Her …

When you wrote, you submerged metaphorsfar too deep for readers to pick upand even a fleet of interpretive submarinesfoundered on the rhythm of surface waves. Your depth-charge ruined prospectsof u…

Lost: my ball in the crossflow winds. Collapse the tactics board now there’s only Route One. Let’s see where it falls. Hope the van won’t topple outside old Brentford dock, buffer…

The Friday Poem on 5th December 2025

Can we agree in April's careful sun as blossom forms and falls on avenues around the hospital and dust settles on eerie memorial rooms in the park, that whispered murmurs couldn't articulate the heart? We can point to balconies and sky views, a rectangle of shifting light that simplifies years into a day's changing moods from a bed in a high-rise hospital room.

Quietus article: Luke Turner’s thorough, and somewhat combative, reflection on the cultural significance of Blur’s Modern Life is Rubbish album, 25 years after its release, contains, im…

Marc Woosnam’s Paper Crown begins on the rainswept streets of North London with a potent cocktail of place and atmosphere in Angel Islington, documenting a promising start to a relationship w…

YouTube video by The Divine Comedy (Official)

I am grateful that ‘The News from Schiphol Airport’ has been published in Alan Summers’ Pan Haiku Review, Issue 3 (p59). This is an open season issue, open to poems of up to ten lines in any form. …

‘Half a thought for Hamish’ has been included in the autumn edition of London Grip. It was initially submitted (unsuccessfully) for the summer edition but I’m grateful to editor Michael Bartholomew…