Son The winning sperm headbutts the egg’s membrane and penetrates. They melt into each other. The chromosomes pair off. The new cell doubles and quadruples, again and again. A hollow ball of cells starts to colonise the endometrium: the placenta channels nutrients and oxygen, immune defences. Neural tube. A spine. A human fish, with a … Read more
In Which A Journey Includes A Walk With A Stranger I Met At A Party Who Kindly Accompanied Me Both To Show Me The Way And To Continue An Interesting Conversation Talk-walk to station. Short trip. Crisps, Private Eye. Bus. Late night porridge. Sleep. … … … … … … … … … … Read more
“A man tried to read write and flow In the end he had little to show For his efforts because His attention span was Too short to keep going.” “Oh no!” One fine day he gets up far too early Two espressos make mood much less surly Blue sky – bright sun shining – Starts … Read more
All spontaneous writing is influenced by everything we’ve read and heard – pop songs, news reports, childhood reading, overheard conversations. Long before starting to write myself, I learned poems I loved by heart, and relished saying them aloud. They became part of me, part of my thinking. Then for years, I wrote each piece in … Read more
Dear World, I’m sorry I missed the boat. I didn’t turn up late because I didn’t care. I have a different sense of time. All my life, I’ve been shamed for not Getting Things Done. Which is depressing. “Complex hidden dis/ability”. If I had cancer, people would make allowances. But my friend with leukaemia has … Read more
Birmingham, Black Country – plenty of canals, and even more streams: all flowing into the Tame, all heading for the North Sea. East of Brum, Solihull’s Blythe joins too – and the Cole (after Sarehole Mill, Kingfisher Park). Tame flows north through Tamworth to join River Trent. So … Read more
