It’s been a while (again). I’ve been really busy with other aspects of life over the past couple of weeks. I resigned from my day job, (you don’t think I make a living from poetry do you?), last week, and start a new one on Monday. My old employer seemed surprised that I didn’t want to stay working on a week-by-week contract having been brought back into my old role on a one month trial…
We finally won the pub quiz at our local the other week. Two and a half years of trying, losing on a tie breaker twice and second place on so many other occasions, often by 1 point. Sometimes less. It was a moment of relief, a time for celebration. And also a time for disbelief. Each week there is a news round. I have stopped watching the news. Picking up snippets here and there. The…
From the Guardian this morning… Australia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann has won a hard-fought election to become the new chief of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), despite grave concerns voiced by environmental groups over his record on climate change. Outside the wind is howling. The washing line would sing if it were taut enough to vibrate a note. This is just weather, of course, not climate. But is anyone listening anyway? Should…
Well at least I’ve managed to complete my business accounts whilst in furlough from the day job. It’s been a useful exercise. Something to focus on each day, with measurable daily achievements, of sorts. Something to take my mind off what is going on in the outside world. Something to help stop my mind from unravelling. 43 days. 43 days since March 23rd, and how many more until the lockdown ends? I’m in a pretty…
In other circumstances I would be at Wembley today, along with another 50,000+ Portsmouth FC fans, for the final of the Leasing.com Trophy. Blue skies, a beautiful spring day, the stuff of memories (or nightmares depending on the result!). A real shame – though the stadium’s empty silence today is of course of minor consequence compared to what else is happening in the UK and around the world right now. I’ve been lucky though. If…
On Monday 18th February I interviewed Margaret Jennings at an event hosted by T’Articulation as part of this year’s Portsmouth Bookfest. The interview seemed to go down well (it was my first attempt at interviewing someone!), and I have subsequently found out that it was recorded and will be played on Portsmouth’s QA Hospital Radio sometime soon. I’ll post the link when it is available. The event, which happened at 113 Art House Coffee (which…
Apart from Brexit and being off work for the tail end of the week – and missing today’s Pompey home game due to having a heavy cold, it’s been a good few days. On Wednesday I headlined at Chichester Poetry, which was great – a nice appreciative audience, and some excellent open mike poems from poets I was unaware of beforehand. I also had a poem accepted for the next edition of South Magazine the…
My first reading of 2020 will be in Chichester, on Wednesday 29th January. I’ll be reading mainly from Landings, and the longer time slot will enable be to read poems that don’t normally feature due to time pressures, including potentially the very long title poem. The full blurb for the event can be found below – and there are open-mic slots available. If you are reading this then hopefully I’ll see you there. OPEN MIC…
The Fifth, and for now, most recent, review of Landings appeared on the High Window Press Website at the end of last year. Sydney Whiteside completed her review by summarising: Landings gracefully articulates anxieties about the future, though these fears are balanced by an uncompromising sense of hopefulness. Williams grounds philosophical musings in brilliant, concrete detail. He evokes the history and topography of Portsmouth with confidence and honesty. The poems in Landings champion the power of memory, uniquely…
The fourth, and as I write, last but one, review of Landings, was by Greg Freeman for the Write Out Loud website. Greg finished the review with the following summary; yes, this is a collection about trains, and boats, and stadiums, and even stationery. But Richard Williams is capable of looking much further and often does; he has his eye beyond the shore of his “city by the sea”, gazing out to the horizon. You…