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Graeme Richardson

@ravoon.bsky.social
1.2K followers 232 following 1K posts

Poetry Critic for the Sunday Times. Anglican Priest. Poetry Collection, "Dirt Rich", out from Carcanet. TLS contributor since 2010. All views very much my own.

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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
This time last year I was spending every day with the Collected Heaney - a superbly undisappointing experience, one of the most enjoyable commissions I ever had.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Nice poem this, from the Nobel Laureate
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I learnt this by heart as a teenager. I still feel so grateful to her for her vision and her courage. A prayer. And, as they say, an eye-opener.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Really pleased to see this review in, of all places, The Idler, from Ned Green...
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The shortlist for this year's TS Eliot prize:
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'm enjoying the miniatures of "Red River Valley", the latest from @imcmillan.bsky.social - very good on memory and shining moments. This reminds me of Causley's "Eden Rock".
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Maturity is not quoting this passage in a review with the comment "That's a lot of old Bauls"
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Bluesky fact-check please: is the quote actually from "Vortex"? I think it's from "Vorticism" which Pound published later that year (1914) in the Fortnightly Review.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
"Dirt Rich" is reviewed by Declan Ryan with his usual sharpness in the current Poetry Ireland Review - I'm so grateful to him, and to Colm Toibin @poetryireland.bsky.social
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
The love poetry is the best bit of MacNeice's Autumn Journal
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I can't review this because Naush is a friend, but I can recommend it: Lentic, the new pamphlet from @naush.bsky.social - a beautiful thing available from @guillemotpress.bsky.social
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Putting suncream on my kids today I was reminded of this brilliant and beautiful Ange Mlinko poem
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Kind of charmed by this statue of Thomas Mann with his dog by the Tegernsee - not charmed enough to finish one of his books, mind...
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
I really admire Emily Wilson, but I find this (and much of the LRB review around it) just silly. And weirdly immature. If you would genuinely "be ashamed" to have written "any part" of a script in a successul much-seen film, your privilege is showing.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
When I first read this Larkin poem (a long time ago) it seemed a triumph of concision. But now I think it's vast and sprawling and mysterious.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Not the biggest Mary Oliver fan, but I love Schumann, and I was surprised by this lovely poem in her new Penguin Selected:
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
From my review of Henry Power's super "Homer Haunted" in The Times:
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Whenever these words pop in to my head (as they do today) I think they are my favourite lines in all of English poetry
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
"Rain on the Studio Window" (2009) - David Hockney
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Beautiful June poem for exhausted people... by Kathleen Jamie
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
I like this, the closing poem of John Challis's new book, "The Green Parcel" -
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Haha, yes. This was one of Yuri's predecessors - Barney, the Terror of the Thames.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Morning!
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
This was the conclusion of the service -
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
Four years of Yuri, the life-affirming nutter
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
This poem by Teresa Hooley (1888-1973) points forward to Wendy Cope
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
It's not often I admire TS Eliot in his interactions with women, but I do here, when he meets Lynette Roberts (and family):
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Nice to see Ronald Knox mentioned here - the book about him and his brothers by his niece Penelope Fitzgerald is worth a read. Also a gifted light verser - he wrote this at Eton, calling for a garden in the schoolyard
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
The anonymous person who thinks Tristram Fane Saunders is boring sounds a lot like Tristram Fane Saunders...
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Kingsley Amis - "New Approach Needed". I used to read this every Good Friday. Far more useful than something pious. I like its belligerence: "Tell your Dad that from me"
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Here's a George Dillon sonnet, a favourite of mine - maybe he was too fluent, but sometimes going with the flow can work.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Asking for "die Akte" in Germany is fraught with peril
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Yuri's nose-to-brain ratio gets him into trouble sometimes but it also makes me laugh
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
The "Bookish Beck" blog likes "Dirt Rich" - you might like it too...
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
A love poem for Valentine's Day from my new book, "Dirt Rich"
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
This is a lovely thing - from @rorywaterman.bsky.social in the latest terrific @badlilies.bsky.social
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Seems legit
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
Good piece by Mathew, but I think it's likely JC was right about Barker -
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
...winner of the TS Eliot prize - and I can now complete this old tweet from @nemoloris.bsky.social
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
It's grand here in the snow
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 04/01/2026
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
THE HAPPIEST CHRISTMAS DOG IN THE WORLD!
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Great tribute. JC's approach to reviewing is an approach I share, and one which poetry needs. If your review only cements a friendship, or solicits a good review in return, or is only written for "the community", it's not doing its job.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Bit rough on Armers this
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Would love this sort of headline to say "read"
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
In the Times today offering commentary in the Love Song of RFK Jr:
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Tom Paulin's 1986 LRB piece on Yeats' letters is a glass of champagne - both dry and sparkling. Look at these 3 sentences! "The impulse dissolved in helpless love..." What a writer he was.
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Graeme Richardson @ravoon.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
This is the illustration accompanying Robert Pinsky's review of Seamus Heaney's Collected Poems in the New York Times... But who the fuck is it supposed to be?
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