A whole week lost to the flu nightmare and now it's a mad catch-up till Christmas. So no poetry read or written, just wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and giving you a song instead of a poem -

written by Rich Mullins, sung by Amy Grant:

'Sometimes my life just don't make sense at all
And the mountains look so big, and my faith just seems so small
So hold me, Jesus, I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been king of my glory, won't you be my prince of peace?

And I wake up in the night, and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul, there must be blisters on my heart
So hold me, Jesus, I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been king of my glory, won't you be my prince of peace?

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight you for somethin' I don't really want than take what you've
given me
And I've beat my head against so many walls, I'm fallin' down, I'm fallin' on
my knees

And the Salvation Army band is playing this hymn
And your grace rings out so deep, it makes my resistence seem so thin
Oh, hold me, Jesus, I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been king of my glory, won't you be my prince of peace?

Oh, hold me, Jesus, I'm shakin' like a leaf
You have been king of my glory, won't you be my prince of peace?'

The St. Andrews based yearly poetry festival will soon be upon us!

The programme for StAnza 2011 is now online. I'm really excited about going especially since I missed it this year. My plan is to head up on the Friday and stay until the Sunday.

After a quick look at the events, the one's I'll be hoping to get tickets for will be the intimate reading with John Burnside, the Marilyn Hacker / Paul Farley reading, a workshop with Claire Crowther on The Fatrasie (whatever that is, but a workshop with Claire Crowther on anything poetry-wise will be fantastic!), lunch and poetry with Hugh McMillan (Shug!) event, the Selima Hill and Philip Gross reading, and the Ciaran Carson Masterclass. Does this not sound like a fantastic weekend?!

I'm in literary heaven reading these two books at the moment. The Lorca plays are simply amazing, gorgeous language and imagery with a gripping storyline. Blood Wedding epecially, my copy here is translated by Langston Hughes. I'll definitely read it in different translations to compare but I think Hughes has done a great job with this, I really love it.
Ariel, The Restored Edition, far exceeded my expectations. Not only to have the right poems in the order Plath intended but also to be able to read a fascimile of the typed manuscript of the poems as she left them is breath-takingly different to reading the softly-softly Ted Hughes version of Ariel. I'll be reading the collection through several times to really take in this new experience of her poems.

First draft -


Cutting Loose

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The Scotsman Haiku hogmany poetry competition - for those of you not on facebook in case you didn't see this. Entries to be in before the 10th of December so get haikuing!! Link to the competition article here.

Another pic, just because it's his birthday today. My now four year old son who insists he is a crocodile, has been dinosaur-mad for the last two years, whose favourite food is nan bread with humous, and bread and butter with slices of pepperoni and who sleeps with Stripes the zebra every night!