So amidst the madness of Christmas seasonal whatnot's, I've managed to write eighteen poems over this last week or so in a series of poems I've called the Van Gogh Variations. They are loosely ekphrastic poems based on paintings by Van Gogh but really, in many of the poems, just using the paintings as a jumping off point and following the poems where ever they go. They are odd little poems, incredibly absorbing and pleasurable to work on. And I'm learning a lot about the life and works of Van Gogh as I go along!

After a year of writing very little (the pandemic has not at all been conducive to my writing) working within these rhyming quatrains and couplets has released me to write. I hope to keep writing many more in this sequence of poems and I'm excited to see how far I get! 

I spend a lot of time in Glasgow Central Station these days. With my new job I'm either hanging about waiting for a train or killing time until my shift starts. I've been gathering Central Station notes / images over the last couple of months and I'm now ready to start working on a sequence of poems.

I've been thinking over why I like writing sequences so much and feel it's very much to do with the fact that sequences give me the sense of freedom and space to explore my subject in a variety of ways that are all interconnected but coming from different angles.

My current ambition is to bring together the symbolism and otherworldliness of Brigit Pegeen Kelly, the control and candor of Durs Grunbein, the playfulness of Theodore Roethke and the clarity and insight of Tomas Transtromer, all clothed in my own voice. A tall order to say the least... but what's the point if you don't aim high?