Beth and I have been making our way through the Odyssey together (all judgement welcome). Just out and safe from the land of the dead - 3,000 year old spoilers. Tempted to leave it here so I don't have to read the heartbreaking section with the old pet pooch.

@tearsinthefence.bsky.social is such a stunning journal - what a treat to take my time digesting its feast of top-rate poetry over winter. Grateful for this unwavering companion!

I've read a tonne of stuff on the bard and this is - maybe surprisingly - right at the top of the pile. Despite her magnificence, Judi lets the plays take centre stage. No ego, all gold. 10/10, shook my spear.

Since the start of everyone's favourite month, I've been dedicating an hour a day to making poems. It's really no time at all, but I'm already feeling the anxiety of not doing enough lift a wee bit.

A hugely well-deserved winner of the @tseliotprize.bsky.social! Glad I wasn't involved in making the call though - it's fair to say this year the prize could have gone to any of the shortlist. Any poets thirsting for their next dose of heavenly manna - start with this lot! @picadorbooks.bsky.social

As poets, I think a lot of us shy away from seeing science as a muse, settling for the usual mythologies. Not so for Sarah Howe. Nestled between the twin strands of the double helix, these poems feel trend-setting & trailblazing - plainly spoken and magically wrought. @vintagebooks.bsky.social

I mean, they're not wrong! #poetry #poetrycommunity

Fantastic poem from Ash - was a pleasure to see early drafts of this, and now looks magnificent in publication with the outstanding @inksweatandtears.co.uk

Despite its title, this is a loudly triumphant debut from Victoria Adukwei Bulley, which finds some seriously inventive angles to explore what it means to be black. If, like me, you're late to the party in reading this stunner - definitely one for the Xmas wish list. @faberbooks.bsky.social #poetry

It was the honour of my life to win @girtoncollege.bsky.social's Jane Martin prize a couple of years back. Cannot recommend it enough. Easy peasy to submit your best poems: www.instagram.com/p/DRepMDtk_f...

Why do we feel bad for reading widely? This is a kids book from 25 years ago. There's a scene where an angel keeps randomly gliding up & making circles in the sky to show its grief. What an image. What an inspiration. Stop feeling bad.

Every month I forget I'm subscribed to @faberbooks.bsky.social (the best father's day gift!) - which means that every month opens with a glorious surprise. I can see why this one's shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize - Tom Paulin reinvents himself unimaginably well after a decade of silence

This one means a lot. My poem 'centurion' is included in the latest edition of the immaculate Poetry Scotland. I wrote it in memory of my mate, Lewis, who passed away not so long ago. Lewis - sorry we never finished our game, rest assured I'm keeping it alive.

Having a banging birthday with this beautiful book! Heaney, the greatest of all time. @faberbooks.bsky.social

Proper honoured to attend Lancaster University's Comedy School workshop. I've always loved comedy as a means of escapism, but Keith Palmer MBE proved to me just how indispensable laughter, self-confidence and improvisation are in all aspects of my work and life. Can't recommend this one enough.

Putting off my primary preoccupation (poetry), I prepared a pumpkin pie. Unpredictably proud of this pulp-filled pocket of pastry.

What a top-tier journal. You can tell how slick Lighthouse is just from the front cover. I'm delighted to have my poem 'rosetta' included in the latest issue. This goes out to anyone who's just got their kid to nod off, only to howl in pain by treading on a square of duplo. @julwe1.bsky.social

THE DEED IS DONE! Just in the nick of time, I've finished my 30 books in 30 days challenge. I will now only be seen to read teen fan-fiction and Beano comics. Day 30 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 3 word review of Moy Sand and Gravel by Paul Muldoon: Paul Muldoon, innit.

Day 29 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Black Country by Liz Berry: Hands up – I’m not the biggest fan of dialect-driven collections. That said, here it’s not only fitting, but exceptionally crafted. The 'Stone' poem is in another league – one to memorise.

Day 28 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Blueprint by Iulia David: There’s often a discrepancy between a debut pamphlet and a full collection, but here it’s impossible to find anything less than promise and perfection, all wrapped up in excellent conceits.

Day 27 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Spindrift by Vona Groarke: Was lucky enough to read this on Morecambe front – kept trying to track the spindrift off the waves. Alas, I haven't the eye for such delicate intelligence as found here.

Day 26 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of @carcanet.bsky.social's Milky Way Bar by Bill Manhire: Dry as a desert - and it's one I'd be happy to get lost in forever. This is where simplicity meet surrealism meets sorrow meets serenity. Long poems felt short.

Day 25 of #30booksin30days. Here's my review of @pavilionpoetry.bsky.social's Nowhere Nearer by Alice Miller: Every poet since Auden has brought out an Icarus poem, but this collection includes what's surely one of the most moving. Speaks to Miller’s expert control over expectation and revelation.

Day 24 of #30booksin30days. Here's my review of @faberbooks.bsky.social's Dancing in Odessa by @ilyakaminsky.bsky.social: No better feeling than smiling shut a book, feeling you've only scratched the surface. Utterly tender and powerful in equal parts. The music of displacement. The dance of exile.

Day 23 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social's That Old-Time Religion by Peter Didsbury: One major thing I learnt: you can take the reader wherever you like (on holiday with Satan, even) so long as you acknowledge they exist and treat them with reverence.

Little late in the month, but here's my September-themed poem as featured recently in The Frogmore Papers. Steals gracelessly from Hemingway, but what you gonna do?

Day 22 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of The Tip of My Tongue by Robert Crawford: An homage to Scots. Acutely strikes between play and sincerity. From the opening poem, the scale of joy and uplift is made clear - tell you what, it's refreshing as heck!

Day 21 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of @faberbooks.bsky.social's New Cemetery by Simon Armitage: Visiting the poet in his shed is like following Marcus Aurelius to the edge of civilised land to witness him win round the enemy by producing sheer ingots of gold.

Day 20 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of A Shorter Life by Alan Jenkins: Usually dread long poems (by that I mean over 14 lines) but here’s the real deal. We talk 'confessional' no end, yet these reveal the sex life of the soul.

Day 19 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of @faberbooks.bsky.social's Look We Have Coming to Dover by Daljit Nagra: Realised its power when I reached the poem that questions the collection's existence. Modern classic, arguably more than ever. First in a while I’ve read twice in one day.

Day 18 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Bloodaxe Books's Life Mask by Jackie Kay: As unpretentious and sincere as you get, and a reminder that nothing is lost for it. I bought every breakup poem. Heartbreak intersects gracefully with ideas of culture, race.

Day 17 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30-word review of Fools For Love And Salt: Poems by the Foyle Young Poets of the Year 2011: The future is safe. Or it was 14 years ago, when these poems were written by folks under 18. Seriously, I'd read nothing outside the AQA Anthology at that age.

Day 16 of #30booksin30days. Here's my short review of Alexa, What Is There to Know about Love? by @brianbilston.bsky.social Poetry can be clever, witty, daring, satirical, but it is never funny. Brian challenges the above notion and walks away with absolute kudos. I laughed out loud. A lot.

Half Way There! Day 15 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of A Hundred Doors by Michael Longley: Flew through this one (bad bird pun but apt given I immediately migrated back to the start for another cycle – will keep this up until I unbaffle the baffling genius.

Day 14 of #30booksin30days. Here's my review of The Abandoned Settlements by James Sheard: I'm about to throw some phrases which are overthrown: confessional, intimate, whispering. Oddly enough for such melancholy reflections, I felt a warmth and snugness rippling through these. One for Autumn.

Day 13 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of The Withering Room by Sarah Sibley: Quietly gothic. Like following a documentary camera through the ghost stricken old world. Pristine control of subtext mixed with a lightness of touch. Draws out the colour of the past.

Day 12 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Blues by John Hartley Williams: There need to be more poem sequences around spaceman comic heroes of the fifties. Consciously clever. Full to the brim with bonkers scenarios, all to the rhythm of the blues.

Day 11 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Field Recordings by Paul Farley: Wee bit biased, given Paul taught me – but who dares argue these aren’t marvels? Originally for radio, you hear the static underwriting the dark and meditative mindscapes. Il miglior fabbro.

Day 10 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of @candlestickpress.bsky.social's Ten Poems about Knitting: Knowing and caring squat about the topic, I went in dubious. Gotta admit, these are a well-curated, memorable and sincerely moving set of poems. The one on masculinity is excellent.

Here's my 30 word review of Egg/Shell by Victoria Kennefick: Needs prescribing for anyone who thinks poetry exists in dichotomies - raw/sophisticated, oral/on-the-page, lofty/lyrical, egg/shell. Kennefick's cool and uncrackable. To quote the collection, 'it is so brilliant it is embarrassing'.

Day 8 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Eyelines by Michael Bangerter: It's a taboo in the poetry world to say that a collection is less than stunning, resulting in immediate exile. With that in mind, I thought this book was stunning.

Day 7 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of For and After by Christopher Reid: Deceptively clean. Though supremely well-edited, never loses the hearty tang of a first draft. Even the root idea - poems for & after other folk - shouldn't work but does. Left jealous.

Day 6 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Pandorama by Ian Duhig: Ode to Leeds. Easy to appreciate as a former Corn-Ex goth. I expected the customary wit, but found the poems around racism sublime. Won't forget Shipley Tower as Picasso's bollock.

Day 5 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Human Work by Sean Borodale: Whoever calls a collection original should compare to this. The back cover boasts praise from Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Alice Oswald, Gillian Clarke, David Morley. Now I see why.

Day 4 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Voodoo Shop by Ruth Padel: If Lara Croft wrote poetry... an adventure into the jungles of the mind. Flirts its way through the breakdown of a relationship (many relationships?). Who knew faith could be sexy?

Day 3 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of Physical Education by Lauren Lawler: Masterfully makes our idea of family somehow more familiar and unfamiliar at once. Yeatsian in its evolution of folkloric ballads. A Sisterly kiss for women across the stretch of history.

Day 2 of #30booksin30days. Here's my 30 word review of @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore: You'd think this a first collection, not a final. Life brims from every page, and what seems like calm lyricism breaks with great power like endless waves of living laughter.

Given it's a new school year, I'm attempting to read 30 poetry collections in 30 days. Literally picked a random assortment from Lancaster Uni Library. Will I become an acolyte of Byron or will my endeavor be as brief as Keats? Stay tuned as I offer a 30-word review each day!

Revisiting this @faberbooks.bsky.social masterpiece in its classic form brings back helm-loads of glorious memories from the PhD - learning to write my first half-decent poems about Viking gods under the unparalleled captaincy of @eoghanwalls.bsky.social

A rare treat to be able read a handful of wee poems for Stories at the Storey the other night. Very good vibes from the organisers - making for an easy-going, non-prescriptive, take-as-long-as-you-like style open mic - another rarity in our clockwork world. Loved it.