Poetry Non-stop out now

My new book Poetry Non-stop is now available on Amazon. It's a guide for poets of all levels to writing a poem a day for 30 days coming out ahead of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) in April.

The book includes:

• Techniques for quickly generating ideas for poems on any topic
• Forms that can be employed to turn any idea or flash of inspiration into a poem
• Daily writing prompts to complete the 30 poems in 30 days challenge
• More than 30 original poems written using the prompts and techniques in the book to entertain and inspire
• Advice on redrafting and developing poems to a publishable standard
• Useful resources for reading, writing and publishing poetry

I've put the price as low as I can for the first few days, so grab it now and get ready for a creative month. I can't wait to see what poems you come up with!

Chris Abrahams - Receiver

Experimental Australian composer and member of The Necks Chris Abrahams returns with an album of typically abstract and otherworldly compositions as intriguing and unpredictable as titles like Clung Eloquent, Trumpets of Bindweed and As Tranquil as an Apple suggest. Receiver offers an unsettling mangled blend of strings and electronics that build up an intricate soundscape with hints of soft melody.

Fluid To The Influence is out on Room40 records on April 8

Podcast: Renn Hubbuck-Melly

Renn Hubbuck-Melly talks about how she grew to love poetry and her hugely successful performance poetry open mic night Juke in Cardiff. We also hear poems on the theme of balance from Fran Smith, Clive Oseman, Will Ford and myself and Renn invites poems on the topic of fear as well as sharing some of her own poetry.

Matchwood

I have a splinter in my finger,
the needle, a slip of metal
prods like a blind prick trying to gain leverage
over the hair of wood.
The whorl distorting,
bark-eye sweet with blood.
Tweezers pinch the sloping rings,
I count them as they expand for excavation.
Thirty one arêtes shape the plumb of my thumb,
red sap curves and bleeds into the tributaries.
The chip comes loose,
small enough to be cargo on an ants back.
Does the tree feel this loss?
I wish to bring home this shard of limb
yet it is dead already,
a clipped nail forced under the lid of skin
flesh would reject
no longer as body
but as the outside we must protect against,
sapwood, heartwood whole, intact.

 By Renn Hubbuck-Melly

The Scissors – No go the lowdown

The Scissors at Mill Road Winter Fair, Cambridge 2015

Cambridge band, The Scissors return with their second album Haunted Mirror, released on German Shepherd Records on March 12th. No go the lowdown is a fine example of the band's distinctive blend of punk, rock, and psychedelia and other odd bits and pieces. Catchy pop with an unpredictable edge.