Our spring ‘writing with …’ course (this time: windows, beasts, Jack Gilbert, lost objects and much more - well three things more) has almost sold out: only a few tickets left for both weds and sat series ... www.northseapoets.com/courses

The new North Sea Poets ‘Writing With …’ spring course has just gone live. We’re running it over seven weeks from Feb (twice, on Weds and Saturdays) – but both dates are half sold out already, so do get your skates on if you’d like to join us … www.northseapoets.com/courses

there’s still just time to join me for the last of the winter webinars tomorrow morning - on ‘symbol’. this may be my most ambitious powerpoint yet. some of these transitions are berserk www.northseapoets.com/events-1

essay on Heaney over at the northseapoets substack … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Just a week left to sign up for a mini-series of webinars, starting with ‘The Joy of Scansion’ on the 29th Nov. In the following weeks I’ll be looking at ideas of poetic space and symbol ... Book individually or as a 3-in-1 at www.northseapoets.com/events-1

just posted some fluff on fluff, deadlines and how to kiss on the radio open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Lesley Harrison on excellent form, writing about bird-names, birdsong and poetry over at the northseapoets place: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

A frog poem from Reflector - my limited edition art book collaboration with #Dundee artist Stephen French: stephenfrench.art

New mini-series of winter webinars, starting with ‘The Joy of Scansion’ on the 29th Nov. Come along and we’ll erm learn to demote that strong stress! etc. We’ll look at poetic space and symbol in the following weeks ... Book individually or as a 3-in-1 at www.northseapoets.com/events-1

Wrote something on Harrison & class. Also scansion. But remember the first rule of Foot Club. open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

As for many poets uneasy in their class consciousness, Tony Harrison’s brilliant controversial long poem V. (1985) blew me away when I first read it. But his short lyrics were sharp, wise, and deeply moving, too, cut from lived life. Saddened to hear the great man has passed. RIP.

me banging on about Woodman, Plath and spirit photography … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Great piece from Lesley Harrison on Inger Christensen and writing under the shadow of the Bomb … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Niall C on winkles, animism, and a frequent topic of conversation round here – Jack Gilbert. substack.com/@northseapoe...

Repost, now with added silence. Occurred to me belatedly that some folk did not read ‘great’ as ‘elder statespersons of international standing’ as per the author’s intentions, but ‘dead good’. I think we can still all agree there are plenty of those. open.substack.com/pub/northseapo…

“A poetry of self-conscious listening, of placing sound carefully. Like the plover, here I am, sitting on this stone, testing out sounds and patterns in order to record how it is to be here in this now.” —Lesley Harrison, “Do Birds Sing?”, in @pnreview.bsky.social www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/do-b...

Just posted a thing on misreadings, facepalms, iron, milk and spiders, and my most brutal encounter with Robert Frost yet … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Wonderful piece by Karen Solie on Fanny Howe, over at the northseapoets place … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

There’s still time to join me in some rather strange poetic territory this saturday morning … www.northseapoets.com/events/the-r...

There’s still time to join me in some rather strange poetic territory this saturday morning … www.northseapoets.com/events/the-r...

escape the dreadful heat & embrace your inner sleet - only a couple of places left on John Glenday’s guide to poetic weather next week: www.northseapoets.com/events/a-wea...

Lisa Brockwell on Elizabeth Bishop, Robinson Crusoe and the perversity of nostalgia, over at the northseapoets place … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Glenday on paying attention and reading Nick Laird’s Up Late - over at the northseapoets place … substack.com/@northseapoe...

A frisky otter in the Donmouth getting there ahead of itself shines bright and brilliant as the shade of Diogo Jota. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Niall C at the northseapoets place today on touch, grit and island funerals … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Is it practically impossible to be an honest poet-critic today? A new essay of mine on the decline of reviewing culture, the rise of the poetry prizes, artistic standards and integrity. Over at the @northseapoets.bsky.social Substack: northseapoets.substack.com/p/winners-an...

Landscape. Death. Bishop. Ghosts. Plath. Artists. Heaney: “Writing With” begins in September. Details at www.northseapoets.com/events/north...

North Sea Poets’ autumn course is now live – places are limited! The theme this time is ‘Writing With …’ – we’ll each focus on a subject or author, and explore what we can learn from them. Everything from ghosts and landscape to Heaney and Plath … www.northseapoets.com/courses-1

Important new essay on the death of poetry criticism from Ben Wilkinson - a new guest post up on the north sea poets substack. A must-read: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

lovely piece from Niall Campbell on the peat libraries of his Hebridean youth. now up at the northseapoets substack … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

If you’re quick - there may still be time to join us this weekend at Stones Barn in Cumbria (ar 15 miles from carlisle) for our annual read-in. We sit round a table, I bring in a bunch of great poems by great poets to discuss, and we have a grand old time. forgottenlands.org/local-events

Part two of a ramble about Palgrave, Tennyson and anthologising up now at the northseapoets posty place. Includes all the dirt on Oscar Williams. You know you want to know open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Just posted part one of an essay on the joy and agony of anthologies, over at the northseapoets substack – on the origins of the form, the genius of Frances Palgrave and why there will never be a book called Cheese Dreams: an Anthology of Dairy-Themed Verse substack.com/@northseapoe...

This documentary about painter Bridget Riley is brilliant. She reminds us what a privilege it is to be alive. A total legend. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

I don’t write much on this subject and don’t intend to start, but some of you may know that - while my politics are small ‘s’, small ‘c’ and raging centrist - I’m a longstanding supporter of Scottish independence. I believe Scotland is a country 1/4

Kathleen Jamie on the northseapoets substack, writing on something we don’t like writing about … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Have posted a slightly bonkers class on the northseapoets site, looking at a very under-identified and -explored kind of parallel metaphor. Bit of a ‘try this one weird trick’, I admit, but it can work to make things both more coherent and a lot stranger. www.northseapoets.com/events/the-r...

I want a fog house! Damn – when I think of all these abandoned outdoors lavvies in Scotland that would have made ideal one-person writing hides … Lesley Harrison on the northseapoets substack: open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Niall Campbell writing on poetry, silence and the living detail over at the northseapoets substack: substack.com/@northseapoe...

Are you a poet interested in getting published? Don't miss this event with @niallpoetry.bsky.social Getting Ready for Publication: Getting the Pamphlet Right 📆 9th May ⏰ 11am-12:30pm 🎟️ £30/£20 Book your place: buff.ly/R8AhrJC #NorthSeaPoets #PoetryWorkshop #PoetrySky

Hi folks - still tripping over your own feet? last chance to book in for what I hope will be a fun one on friday - clocks, parrots, chet baker and more alternate stress than you can shake a stick at www.northseapoets.com/events/two-d...

wheesht: John Glenday muses on Harpo Marx, Harpocrates and silence over at the northseapoets substack … open.substack.com/pub/northsea...

Belter of a piece now up at the northseapoets substack – Karen Solie on CD Wright, beeches and the martyrs of Strathkinness substack.com/@northseapoe...

Good piece from Pat. I share his fears. Tho I suspect that to ‘win’, AI doesn’t need to develop AGI, only the selfishness of a virus. Its astonishing manipulation of us cd easily be driven by that alone. The thought that it’s all joined-up motor reflex is far scarier than if it were consciousness.

June’s a way off, but if you want to get in there early – I’ve posted a class at northseapoets I thought might be fun. Basically a whistlestop tour of some of my favourite ‘stuck poet’ resources www.northseapoets.com/events/how-t...

Part two of the ‘Oh God What Have We Done’ AI & literature essay now up over at the northseapoets substack. I feel we’re not panicking quite enough yet. open.substack.com/pub/northsea...