This song by Smog is running through my head this morning

Let's move to the country
Just you and me

My travels are over
My travels are through

Let's move to the country
Just me and you

A goat and a monkey
A mule and a flea

Let's move to the country
Just you and me

Let's start a...
Let's have a...

My travels are over

listen to it if you like

Bard for Worcestershire

The Worcestershire Literary Festival is proud to announce a competition to find the first ever Worcestershire Poet Laureate to be appointed during the launch night of the Festival on Friday 17^th June 2011 at a prestigious event taking place in Worcester Cathedral, starting at 7.30pm.

The first Poet Laureate will be appointed for a period of one year and we are looking for someone who will be an ambassador for the County of Worcestershire, who will attend key events and write poems about special occasions throughout the year.

One day left to enter!!

Enter Here

My poem, Hedge Brown, is included in this lovely book about Shropshire Butterflies

Come and celebrate Shropshire Butterflies - in poems, art, and real life!

The Dower House Gardens June 11th, Gardens open at midday.

You are invited to come with a picnic, chairs, rugs, cushions, family, friends.

Come at any time that suits you. From between 2 until 5 pm there will be poetry performed in the garden (or church if its raining).

There will be art from the book exhibited in the church. The book Shropshire Butterflies - a poetic and artistic guide to the butterflies of Shropshire will be on sale, 6 weeks before its official launch plus you can buy Katherine Swift’s books; and other books, cards, artwork by the poets and artists involved in the Shropshire Butterflies book.

Each ticket costs £5, ticket sales going to the charity - Butterfly Conservation, as is part of the money from the sale of the book. Tickets can be bought by emailing Nadia Kingsley on fairacrepress@btinternet.com or on the door on June 11th, 2011.

Venue: The Dower House Gardens, Morville Hall, Bridgnorth, Shropshire WV16 5NB

Thank you to Nadia Kingsley for doing such a wonderful job of organising and editing this lovely collection of art and poems.

Virginia Woolf

"Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money."

"For most of history, Anonymous was a woman."

"When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?"

"I am rooted, but I flow."

"There was a star riding through clouds one night, & I said to the star, 'Consume me'."

"Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack."

"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."

paper is better than a kindle at poetry readings

This is a luddite post, despite being written on a laptop

but paper is great, it really is

because you can take it out of your pocket and read your poem to the audience

rather than staring at a blank screen because your kindle has failed you

I sat in audience and I felt for the poor fellow, but I did feel like shouting 'paper!' at him

staying up too late watching films I have already seen before

brooding came naturally

Gladiator, that is the film keeping me awake tonight. I thought, I'll just watch a little bit and then go to bed, but now the clock is still ticking and I am still watching. Russell Crowe is excellent in this film, so vengeful and his thighs are splendid in that gladiator skirt thing. Have a soft spot for that talented old drunk, Oliver Reed. He steals this film in only a few brief scenes.

Immortality

The only certain cure for death is sex,
All else to dusty shadows and burnt soot,
Children give endless life and few regrets.

Think, freezing yourself is too complex,
A fool's quest and you know in your gut,
The only certain cure for death is sex.

Seeking for the fountain of youth will vex,
Instead aim for that umbilical cut,
Children give endless life and few regrets.

Genes are not the only heirloom objects,
Any nurtured child continues you, but,
The only certain cure for death is sex.

Don't waste time in life forgetting the next,
Soon you will be buried in a soil rut,
Children give endless life and few regrets.

Grasp at false hope and cast spells and hex,
Years will still run and that final door shut,
The only certain cure for death is sex,
Children give endless life and few regrets.