And then it was December...

Life moves on, sometimes in ways hard to fathom. The months pass quickly but weeks can last forever.

As usual, keeping a record here of publications. I've had a few poems published recently. It feels like the waiting times for magazine submissions has vastly increased over the last few years. I'm guessing there are more folk writing and submitting poems now than ever before. 

I have a couple of poems in the lastest issue of Stand Magazine, a couple of poems in Ofi Press issue 71 which you can read here. And, I'm particularly pleased to have a poem in the latest issue of The Manhattan Review.

Quite probably the last poems in magazine publication from my next poetry collection, Look to the Crocus, before it is due out in Springtime (may Spring come quickly). 

I'm going through various drafts of my forthcoming collection, editing and cutting poems from it. I have way too many poems. It's a pleasant process to be absorbed in, particulary in these wintry cold days. 

New bumper issue of Northwords Now is out with a couple of my poems in it. Always a pleasure to have work in Northwords Now which is freely distributed across Scotland and every edition fully available to read online which you can access here. Lots of poems, short stories, non-fiction writing and book reviews from across Scotland, a fab read! 

So, Look to the Crocus is due to be published spring next year and my manuscript is now pretty much ready for publication. It's nice to be able to sit the ms aside for a sort of resting period which means I can go back to it closer to publication with fresh eyes. 

This also means I have the sort of feeling of a blank slate in front of me for new writing...!

Book Three Word Cloud!

(Still love a word cloud!)

Life is very busy and although poetry has taken a back seat, it is always going on in the background. Plans of a third collection to come out next year, a few poems published, daydreams about what to write next...

This Spain-inspired poem appeared on Ink, Sweat & Tears a while back.

A few poems from my Van Gogh sequence were published in the recent Poetry Salzburg Review.

I'm occasionally contacted by people who have been moved by one of my flower poems and it's nice to know that my poems are out there and working their way into occasional lives despite my minimal active involvement in the current poetry scene. 

I'm so enjoying the work of Matthew Sweeney at the moment, it has taken me a while to really get on board with his poems but I'm seeing possibilities in his work that could potentially help me move on in my writing. I absolutely love his poem The Owl.