Bob's BLOG

Poetry

I began writing poems almost by accident in 1996, while I was studying for an M.A. in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University - I certainly never intended to write poetry when I began the course. 

Since then, however, the quest to write what Robert Graves would call the 'necessary poem' has increasingly fascinated me, although I have no way of telling whether I have succeeded in doing this. AIong the way, I have published poems in a variety of magazines and anthologies, with recent work appearing in Orbis, Envoi, and Stand. 

I offer these five poems to provide a flavour of my work:

Title	First publication
Moon's Yard	Orbis 120
The Masque	Envoi 134
Christmas Spirit	Stand Vol 6 (1)
A cinnamon merchant describes England to the Satrap of Tashkent	The Interpreter's House 22
A bird's a verb	HQ 30

I have also been involved with the Poetry on the Lake festival held each September at Orta in northern Italy since its inception in 2001, and for the past three years I have been a preliminary judge for the Poetry on the Lake competition.