Poem

SKIES Skies shift in tantrums of wind Swooping like hawks to clutch Nugget remnants of clouds Shredding to rain In juxtaposed contemplation Around tall-chimneyed houses up alleys Like hatchets gouging specious fields. A sudden sun slashes the grey canvas, Molten, smouldering, quenched. A rumour of luxury… Happiness counts its tolls, Its sons of sons, Gambling hours like defunct riddles Corrupting side-streets of hope In empires of dull words Filching the lees Of living’s rich harvest – Muddled brambles of extremes, Out-of-sync carousels of ideas, Bare arms and dirty hands Merely getting on with it.

Special Mention in Anthology Review

Griffin Prize 2012

So Harsent and O'Brien also made the Griffin finals with Night and November respectively, after also being involved in the TS Eliot and Forward Awards. 65,000 Canadian dollars went to Harsent then.... can't help having an itchy little feeling .... out of hundreds of books and authors, how come the same names always, always line up for the prizes..... Perhaps they should plan a merger and have a good go at the Nobel!!!

TS Eliot Prize 2012

Is it this time of year again already? Didn't manage to read all the listed books but feel prompted to comment anyway: Sorry, folks, but while Leontia Flynn is a nice name her poems are so insubstantial it's unbelievable. Definite case of mad pen disease aka creative writing syndrome. Trivial and flimsy most of the time. Sorry folks, but Haresent and O'Brien are dull and pompous, and rather boring at times. Think I'll just sit down and write an epic disease aka I'm a famous poet so I can write any crap I want syndrome. Of the others, I've only read Burnside in magazines but at least he has something to say and says it well. Still, a safe decision since he also took the Forward prize (the third to "do the double" after Hughes and O'Brien).