Well, we’re finally about to get our summer!

Poetry will have its own summer, too, as after all poetry is a form of summer. Like I did last year, I’m going to keep it all going here. I’m running a short summer term with three different sessions you can join, and they’re all online so you can attend from practically anywhere. (As you can see above, I have brought some of the summer inside with me so I can still have it when I’m working.)

ADVANCED WORKSHOP GROUP

This is a great way to see what it’s like, and get some feedback and friendly moral support, without committing to a whole term. You have a choice of two sessions, and it’s fortnightly, so it might even fit around your holiday!

Wednesdays: 3-5pm 28 July, 11 & 25 Aug, 8 Sept
£80

Saturdays: 11am-1pm 31 July, 14 & 28 Aug, 11 Sept
£80

LUNCH HOUR POEMS

In which I present one poem, and we squeeze the juice out, replenish our Vitamin P, and then go back to work full of energy and hope for the future! Weekly, over sx sessions.

Thursdays, 1-1.45pm, 5 Aug - 9 Sept £40

I’m also free for one-to-one feedback and editing, so if you have a manuscript that needs some help, it could be waiting for you when you get back from that camping trip!

As always, just drop me a line if you’d like to join a workshop or get some feedback.

For more detailed information on how I can help you develop your writing, go to the ‘Work with me’ page. And as always, if you’re having trouble with the money, just let me know and we’ll see what we can work out.

Here’s one of my favourite summer poems, to get you in the mood; read the rest of it on the Poetry Foundation website. It has a great last line.

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right, […]

by James Wright

Whatever you do, whether in a hammock or on a bus, whether working like a person just off furlough or singing like a grasshopper, have a lovely season! We’ve all earned this one.