When I’m not writing poetry, I’m also moving into writing for television – a world I’m realising just makes disabled people almost completely invisible – most of the time. The MacTaggart Lecture is the keynote of the Edinburgh Film and Television International Show, and is delivered by a leading light of the industry. This year,Continue reading “Shield (MacTaggart Lecture)”
Category Archives: Poetry
Round Table: Fisher King
This is part of a sequence of five vignettes of Arthurian characters and dilemmas placed into historical contexts, written on commission from Bedtime Stories for the End of the World (link). For the full sequence of poems, click here (link) For an audio file of my reading of the full sequence click here (link –Continue reading “Round Table: Fisher King”
Round Table: Gawain
This is part of a sequence of five vignettes of Arthurian characters and dilemmas placed into historical contexts, written on commission from Bedtime Stories for the End of the World (link). For the full sequence of poems, click here (link) For an audio file of my reading of the full sequence click here (link –Continue reading “Round Table: Gawain”
Round Table: Galehaut (1985)
This is part of a sequence of five vignettes of Arthurian characters and dilemmas placed into historical contexts, written on commission from Bedtime Stories for the End of the World (link). For the full sequence of poems, click here (link) For an audio file of my reading of the full sequence click here (link –Continue reading “Round Table: Galehaut (1985)”
Round Table: Perceval
This is part of a sequence of five vignettes of Arthurian characters and dilemmas placed into historical contexts, written on commission from Bedtime Stories for the End of the World (link). For the full sequence of poems, click here (link) For an audio file of my reading of the full sequence click here (link –Continue reading “Round Table: Perceval”
Round Table: Guinevere
This is part of a sequence of five vignettes of Arthurian characters and dilemmas placed into historical contexts, written on commission from Bedtime Stories for the End of the World (link). For the full sequence of poems, click here (link) For an audio file of my reading of the full sequence click here (link –Continue reading “Round Table: Guinevere”
Knights of the Round Table
As a commission for the podcast Bedtime Stories for the End of the World I wrote a series of poems merging Arthurian legend, history, and themes to build a wold tracing ripples through those characters. I was lucky enough to be paired with Momtaza Mehri, who made excellent suggestions on the poems, and we didContinue reading “Knights of the Round Table”
Lewisham and Harrow (with Daljit Nagra)
A collaborative poem between Jamie Hale and Daljit Nagra J The field here by day is throbbing. Drill-master ex-army workouts, blonde women sprint with their buggies. At night, the music is thrumming. Car-speaker bass. I fight the desire to dance, the neighbour calls the cops. D During lockdown we go for walks in our parkContinue reading “Lewisham and Harrow (with Daljit Nagra)”
Keeping creating when inspiration has fled
I’m passionate about my creative career, and when people ask me how I work, one of the first things I say is that I make time to produce creative work every day – even if just a tiny bit. Why do I do that? I’m often uninspired, I struggle to figure out what to write,Continue reading “Keeping creating when inspiration has fled”
Shield – my poetry pamphlet is RELEASED
At the beginning of the pandemic, I spoke to my GP about being ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ and intensive care treatment, and he told me that I was “stuck between a rock and a hard place”, that the factors that made me extremely vulnerable would also make me low priority for intensive care treatment. I wasContinue reading “Shield – my poetry pamphlet is RELEASED”