Some time in the mid twenty-teens, when twitter was still twitter, and still a place to make connections and jokes, my partner Will stepped out of the bookshop where he had been working part-time for years, carried a book across the road, and positioned it on a gate. For a couple of years he hadContinue reading “On books in the landscape”
Tag Archives: Chronic Illness
Worst/Best/To The Moon
For the academically-attuned, there is more than one start to the year, and perhaps that which begins sometimes between early September and early October is the more poignant, and evocative. So instead of reflecting on my year in January – which I didn’t feel able to do this year – I’m doing it now. I’veContinue reading “Worst/Best/To The Moon”
Shunting in reverse through the steps of a dance/nobody else can join in with.
This week I got the news that a poem of mine, ‘Begin’, was chosen as one of the runners-up for this year’s Fish Poetry Prize, judged by Nick Laird. This is what he says about it – Begin by Polly Atkin The poem had impressive, confident turns, and I admired the way its syntax brokeContinue reading “Shunting in reverse through the steps of a dance/nobody else can join in with.”
Shadow Dispatches 