This is the fifth - and final - instalment of groups of 3 poems selected from my 2010 sequence of poems which takes Homer’s The Odyssey as its starting point. The full sequence of 22 poems first appeared in Hurt (Enitharmon Press). I have written about the development of the sequence in an earlier blog post here. The first 3…

This is the fourth instalment of groups of 3 poems selected from my 2010 sequence of poems which takes Homer’s The Odyssey as its starting point. The full sequence of 22 poems first appeared in Hurt (Enitharmon Press). I have written about the development of the sequence in an earlier blog post here. The first 3 poems can be read here.

Join us from 4pm to celebrate the life and work of poet, writer, broadcaster, publisher, journalist and local historian David Perman.

This is the third instalment of groups of 3 poems selected from my 2010 sequence of poems which takes Homer’s The Odyssey as its starting point. The full sequence of 22 poems first appeared in Hurt (Enitharmon Press). I have written about the development of the sequence in an earlier blog post here. The first 3 poems can be read here.

This is the second instalment of groups of 3 poems selected from my 2010 sequence of poems which takes Homer's The Odyssey as its starting point. The full sequence of 22 poems first appeared in Hurt (Enitharmon Press). I have written about the development of the sequence in an earlier blog post here. The first 3 poems can be read here.

This is the first instalment of groups of 3 poems selected from my 2010 sequence of poems which takes Homer's The Odyssey as its starting point. The full sequence of 22 poems first appeared in Hurt (Enitharmon Press). I have written about the development of the sequence in an earlier blog post here. In these 3 poems, Odysseus, now an old man, walks the Ithacan landscape in search of an old grave…

Watching Christopher Nolan's film The Odyssey on the IMAX screen at Swiss Cottage recently reminded me of this .... Back in 2008, I was struggling to complete a sequence of poems – called ‘Essays in Island Logic’ – in which I had taken the three central figures of Homer’s The Odyssey and placed them on a modern Ithaca, by now become a popular holiday destination.

This review of David Harsent's 'The Wound' - a chapbook which gives us the first sighting of Harsent's versions of C.P. Cavafy - published in 2025 by Dare-Gale Press, was originally published in Acumen magazine. It was commissioned by reviews' editor, Andrew Geary, for which many thanks. It has been fascinating to explore these versions and to begin the process of comparing them with other translations that are widely availble.

For those who'd like to hear me read my own work in the next few weeks - and those who find themselves close to the venues listed here - I am one of several readers in central London on the Tuesday 1st September (we'll each be doing about 15 minutes each) and a more extended reading and discussion (with floor reader spots) at The Riverhouse Barn in Walton-on-Thames, hosted by Katie Griffiths on…

This review of Charles Tomlinson's The Change of Light, published by Dare-Gale Press in 2025, first appeared in Acumen magazine, commissioned by reviews' editor, Andrew Geary. Many thanks for the invitation to write about these fine, posthumously published poems. Beginning to publish poems in the early 1950s, Charles Tomlinson will have been conscious of his outsider status on several fronts.

I have two reading dates coming up in the next couple of weeks as follows: Firstly, on Thursday, 25th June @ 7.30pm I'm looking forward to reading poems with Kate Noakes and also listening to some jazz as part of the Festival of Chichester. Thanks to Barry Smith for the invitation. Here's the Festival blurb for the whole event... Acclaimed poets Martyn Crucefix and Kate Noakes link with Mike Carey’s Big House Jazz ensemble to entertain and inspire.

Now published, my translation of the great German poet Jürgen Becker’s 1993 collection, Foxtrot in the Erfurt Stadium. Shearsman Books have done a marvellous job with this book. The poems are introduced by a brilliant essay by Lutz Seiler (also in my translation) and an extract from Becker's early statement of literary intent, 'Against the Conservation of the Literary Status Quo’ (1964).

I have been very poor with posting on here for a while. For which apologies. But here is an event you might like to attend if you are in the Chesham area this coming Sunday afternoon. It's part of the Chesham Festival Fringe - and I'm reading with friend and ex-teaching colleague Valerie Jack. Follow the link below for more details. Entry is FREE. My plan is to read some Rilke in translation and some poems from my new Shearsman Books collection.

This review has just appeared on the Everybody's Reviewing site. Many thanks for giving this new collection such an insightful and concise reading, Gary Day. There’s something about Martyn Crucefix’s poetry that reminds me of a theremin, an early electronic musical instrument that was played without being touched. Two antenna detected hand movements and translated them into eerie, vocal sounds. So these poems, without quite touching the substantial world, nevertheless register it in all its oddly ephemeral density.

This review - or a shortened version of it - first appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, 25th December 2025. Many thanks to Camille Ralphs for commissioning it. The Opposite of Seduction: New Poetry in Germanis edited by Alexander Kappe, Nicola Thomas, Jana Maria Weiß and published by Shearsman Books, 2025. Rebuff, repulsion, lacking allure – it’s a risk to call an anthology of poetry…

I will be contributing to an event in London next week which will mark 100 years since Rilke's death. I will read from my translations of Rilke as published in Change Your Life (Pushkin Press, 2024). To quote from the Goethe-Institut's publicity for the evening: Please join us us for a vibrant evening celebrating Tanzt die Orange —a groundbreaking new anthology that brings Rilke’s poetry into the language of today…

This brief review of my most recent chapbook, Walking Away (Dare-Gale Press, 2025), has been written by Debasish Lahiri and recently appeared on the website Everybody’s Reviewing, Dec 2025. Many thanks to the reviewer for his close reading and enthusiasm about the poems and to Jonathan Taylor who edits the wonderfully lively and interesting site at Everybody's Reviewing…

John Greening has recently reviewed my new chapbook of poems, Walking Away (Dare-Gale Press, 2025), a review which first appeared on The High Window website. Many thanks to David Cooke at THW and to the reviewer for his kind and perceptive comments about a set of poems for which I feel (an obvious) affection. Mum and Dad would be bemused by it all I think, but pleased to be so remembered.

This review of my recent Dare-Gale Press chapbook, Walking Away, has just appeared on Litter Magazine website. Many thanks to Ian Brinton for his insightful observations on what he calls 'this important little volume'. Any kind of proximity to Ben Jonson, Vladimir Nabokov and WS Graham is good with me! 'Language most shewes a man: speake that I may see thee.

Posts about Reviews written by The High Window Review

A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

This review first appeared in Acumen Poetry Magazine in the autumn of 2025. Many thanks to the reviews editor, Andrew Geary, for commissioning it. Vanishing Points, by Lucija Stupica, is a translation from the Slovene (by Andrej Peric, published by Arc Publications in 2024) of the poet’s fourth collection, published in 2019, and is her first book to appear in English.

A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

This review first appeared in Acumen Poetry Magazine in the autumn of 2025. Many thanks to the reviews editor, Andrew Geary, for commissioning it. As a female writer, talented in a variety of genres, living in a difficult political climate, Hungarian born Krisztina Tóth shares a good deal with Huch (my review of Tim Adès translation of Huch's final book was posted here).

I will be giving a reading for the Fire River Poets based in Taunton, UK, on Thursday 6th November from 19:15 - 22:00. I will be reading in two 15/20 minute slots and there is an opportunity for floor readers if you sign up in advance. More details as they have been given to me are here.... Zoom Link: …

Walking Away, the new poetry pamphlet by Martyn Crucefix, is a tender, heart-breaking farewell to the poet’s mother and father.

This review is an extended version of the one which first appeared in Acumen Poetry Magazine in the autumn of 2025. Many thanks to the reviews editor, Andrew Geary, for commissioning it. Considered by Thomas Mann as ‘the first lady of German letters’ and as the first woman to receive the prestigious Goethe Award (1931), Ricarda Huch (1864-1947) was a literary superstar of her time, yet remains little known in English.

With the sad news of the passing of Tony Harrison, who as a working class poet had a great impact on me during my formative years of writing in the 1980s, I went back to a piece I was commissioned to write for an OUP collection of essays on his writing - both poetic and dramatic - in 1997. The book, …

A little flock of reading dates - replacing the swifts that have left our skies recently - have gathered themselves into something that almost resembles a brief Autumn Reading Tour. Admittedly, not going too far beyond the Greater London area - but to Maidstone and (briefly) Winchester - but of course I'm very happy to be granted these opportunities to read my work.

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. It is as a poet writing in Gaelic that MacNeacail – who died in 2022 – is most well-known, though he would himself provide translations of his work into English, what, in the poem ‘last night’, he refers to as Gaelic’s ‘sister tongue’.

A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

I was recently tagged in a social media post by someone doing the Sealey Challenge - one poetry book a day for the month of August! I do admire people's stamina. I was tagged because the book of the day for this person - and a mercifully short one at that - turned out to be my own chapbook, published by Hercules Editions back in 2019 under the title…

The shortlist for the eco-poetry/nature poetry Laurel Prize 2025 has just been announced. The finalists – judged this year by the poets Kathleen Jamie (Chair), Daljit Nagra, and the former leader & co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales Caroline Lucas – are (in alphabetical order): Judith Beveridge Tintinnabulum (Giramondo Publishing)JR Carpenter Measures of Weather (Shearsman Books)Carol Watts…

The shortlist for the eco-poetry/nature poetry Laurel Prize 2025 has just been announced. The finalists – judged this year by the poets Kathleen Jamie (Chair), Daljit Nagra, and the former leader & co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales Caroline Lucas – are (in alphabetical order): Judith Beveridge Tintinnabulum (Giramondo Publishing)JR Carpenter Measures of Weather (Shearsman Books)Carol Watts…

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. Tennessee Williams once wrote that ‘memory takes a lot of poetic licence’, but Helen Farish’s memory poems in The Penny Dropping (Bloodaxe Books, 2024) declare from the outset that their intention is to set things (here quoting TS Eliot) ‘in order’, by settling ‘life accounts bravely in the face of now and then, and settle them honestly’ (here quoting Charlotte Bronte’s…

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. As the editor, Grevel Lindop, says in his Introduction to Collusive Strangers: New Selected Poems (Shearsman Books, 2024), the literary world has not taken enough notice of the remarkable oeuvre of Jeremy Reed.

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. The collection, Rhizodont, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize in 2024. The ‘rhizodont’ which provides the title for Katrina Porteous’ fourth collection (Bloodaxe Books, 2024) is not some niche root-canal dental work, but a large predatory species of fish, which became extinct 310 million years ago.

A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

The Atlantic recently posted a link to a site which can be used by authors of any stripe to check to see what, if any, of their works have (already) been used by Meta to train AI. For the last few weeks, social media have been full of understandably irate authors who discover this is exactly what has (already) happened. It looks to me as if prose works (fiction and non-fiction) as well as critical writing of all kinds – perhaps more than that ‘difficult’ genre poetry – have particularly fallen victim to the process.

A couple of recent experiences with my own poems being posted/published on-line and kind readers then commenting on them has made me think again about the use of the first-person singular in poems – the use of ‘I’. Perhaps ‘think again’ is the wrong phrase as I have never – or at least not since my far distant teen years – really thought of the ‘I’ appearing in my poems as identical to the biographical, historical, personal ‘me’ tapping this out on a keyboard on a sunny Tuesday morning after the Easter weekend.

A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.