I bought “Lumen”after hearing Tiffany Anderson’s dumbfounding poem Dog Speaks, the rest of the book is dynamite too ❤️ #poetry #dogs @tiffanya.bsky.social

My recommendation this winter for a delightfully pleasing and enjoyable read - now buying all her other books, thanks @lissakevans.bsky.social

So heartwarming to play the organ for my home village church on Christmas Day - I’d like to say I pulled all the stops out but I’m not sure what they do… Merry Christmas everyone! ❄️🪾❤️

Foggy morning on the way to the hospital #nursing #shiftwork

Powerful exhibition of work by Ishiuchi Miyako on the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings. There is so much life in these preserved textiles ❤️

Winter lunch - udon, miso, beetroot. A day for rest and poetry ❤️

Delighted to have a poem in the Fig Tree about a day at the Crazy Golf in the off season…⛳️

At the Musical Instrument Museum in Brussels you can see (and hear) what trumpets might have turned out like ❤️

Hanging out with the Choking Charlies at First Aid Training ❤️

Summer might be over but the heated laundry rack is on ❤️

This week I started studying to be a nurse. This antique silver ‘nursing belt’ belonged to my Granny. The designs were specific to the hospitals the nurses trained at ❤️

Good medicine at the Poetry Pharmacy on Oxford Street ❤️💊

I’m in great company in this excellent journal Dream Catcher, and delighted to have a number of poems in it including this duplex with probably the strangest title I’ve ever used, thank you James Joyce! ❤️

Lady Jane Grey joins me for lunch, rudely facing the other way

Delighted to be included in issue #10 of the Fig Tree with my football (and life) related poem Extra Time ⚽️

First time in Cornwall, at the beautiful Trevaunance Cove ❤️

Beautiful southern Norway ❤️

London Hydraulic Power Company 1882 Some interesting history on the penultimate leg of my 5 year long Thames walk from Oxford to the Barrier ❤️

Made a new friend on my rest day ❤️

The view from St Mary’s Hospital today - dragon boat races on Paddington Basin

Thanks to N2 magazine for publishing my nature poem ‘wild’ 🪶

Enjoying the Do Ho Suh memory houses at the Tate Modern ❤️

Plum time

Perfect day on the Heath ❤️

A highlight of my week was the launch of Matthew Paul’s new book - exceptional poems that tell stories of times and people I feel I know ❤️

The cat brought in a slow worm today! This friendly chap was put safely in the undergrowth at the back of the garden ❤️

Delighted to receive this gift of poetry in the post from my good friend Steve Moran, who I would describe as the Walt Whitman of Willesden ☺️ @stephen-moran.bsky.social

This mural cheered me up on a fruitless mission this morning - it’s June Rose Barber, the longest remaining tenant in her block near Kilburn, done by Global Art Collective in 2020

Enjoyed this Thames timeline mosaic as we passed St Paul’s on our epic walk of the Thames from Oxford to the Barrier - I’m writing time travel, currently lost in 1995 ❤️

My new seedlings are doing well this year…

blacknorereview.wordpress.com My poem The Old Man of Stoer published in the beautiful Black Nore Review today ❤️

This is La Hougue Bie on the island of Jersey, one of the ten oldest human sites in the world. It’s a Neolithic passage tomb, and has a 12th century church on the mound above. At summer equinox, the passage is lit by the sun. Amazing to go inside and know people were there 4,000 years ago ❤️

My favourite poem from this collection - very well observed but also dreamlike. Love the reference to The Guardian!

I was delighted to do a reading of Magpie’s Nest for a group at the Wellcome Trust yesterday ❤️ Afterwards I visited their Hard Graft exhibition which looks at work and rights - I loved these paintings from health and safety manuals by Lubaina Himid

Studio Ghibli me 📽️

Sunset on A Bay ❤️ #healthcare #nhs #work

Enjoying these long thin poems by Eileen Myles. Deceptively simple - but it’s nice to read poems that make you feel it’s easy to sit down and scribble one ❤️

Just discovered this stunning book by Christian Bök - each chapter contains poems using only one of the vowels. They create very different sensations - it’s beautiful and also very funny ❤️

Here’s my poem “3,000 pieces” published in London Grip Spring 2025, written before I knew I was going to make a big career change to work in the NHS. I am glad not to have suffered the nightmare of Covid as a hospital worker but I’m also glad to feel I’m where I should be now ❤️

This week was my first week working for the NHS in a hands-on role in a busy hospital. It’s intense but incredibly satisfying work. Working shifts and writing feels like it’s going to be a good balance ❤️

I love the art at Charing Cross Hospital (can’t escape the strip lights for the photos sadly) - I’m in the training centre this week enjoying these botanical works by Tamsin Relly 🌺

Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls poem was one of the first texts to associate Valentine’s Day with love (or at least birds choosing their mates) 🐦‍⬛🪿🦉🦃🦚🦢🦅🦆🪺❤️ Chaucer finished that poem, unlike the Canterbury Tales where he ran out of steam - it’s still done pretty well though…

Pelicans at St James’ Park

Winter sun

Beautiful work by photographer Sayuri Ichida at the @DaiwaFoundation When you look closely you realise the two people are actually the same person 💔

Another beauty from the British Library, a guide for Anchoresses from 1240. Walling yourself up in the side of the church as a living saint doesn’t sound like the worst idea to me - plus you’re encouraged to have a cat: ‘ne schule ye habben nan beast bute cat ane’

‘Medieval Women’ exhibition at the British Library - here Christine de Pisan in 1434 doesn’t see why she shouldn’t write about warfare - after all check out Roman Goddess of War, Minerva ❤️

It was a true delight to hear poet Kimberly Johnson read last night, an anatomy teacher turned expert on renaissance literature who loves the old words that get to the guts of things. Here’s one of hers 🌷

Frome is my kind of town - I appreciate a hot water bottle display ❤️

Early start, Wakefield Kirkgate