The Dad-Map is, of course, never really settled: borders and landmarks can shift and change. Well-trodden paths can suddenly, unexpectedly, develop surprising new forks and turns.
What follows is no definitive guide, simply a brief tour of some of my own most memorable destinations.
When off-stage, or screen, Actors ‘rest’. Copywriters read, or at least they ought to. So, yesterday, being in the latest in-between phase of the freelance copywriter life (a phase increasingly lengthier than the active project/gig phase itself, as the three-headed apocalyptic career assassins of AI, Age(ism) and Advertising Eating Itself advance upon my territory with…
In praise of small things, especially a new cemetery gate.
Drawn by myth, stunned by reality. A trip to Transylvania.
Going down to the mill is something we do every time we come here. It’s a short distance downhill from Rue de la Roche, where my parents-in-law live, to the town’s second river. When the water is low, as it usually is in August, the visit also includes a walk across the stepping stones and…
A poem about a shelf of books.
Have a read, guess the books…
A month of poetry goings-on…
Unwhispered Legacy is the first anthology published by The Book Bag X Write Here, Right Now. Edited by Paul Short, the anthology is raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières. It contains poems from an international group of poets including: Rishi Dastidar, Özge Lena, John Chmura, Leia Butler, Saraswati Nagpal, Samantha Terrell, Helen Laycock, Sarah Raybould,…
Brutal Blocks – a new poem of mine, you can read in Eche Poetry Issue Three.
London Underground’s Northern Line is split into two branches, where its most central stations can be found. The Charing Cross Branch and The Bank Branch. Long ago, I thought there might be a bit of poetic fun to be had with it. Now, here it is.
Shh! A tale of library based vengeance…
Like many commentators, I found Jenrick’s bodged defection a bit funny. However, the rise of Reform, or deform as I have it here is not. At all. This bit of ‘fun’, below, is the kind of thing that happens when freelancers like me have too much downtime. Thanks to Dave Tokley for help with putting…
In the spirit of pointless, subjective artistic judgements, here’s the roundup you’ve all been waiting for. Including the MOST BRILLIANTLY DESCRIBED MESS OF A BOOK FILLED, ASHTRAY CHOKED BEDROOM AWARD.
Back in March, I was interviewed by Andrew Stuck for the Talking Walking Podcast. Here it is, along with a cheering birdsong chorus.
Experimenting with poetic forms – here I have a go at a Villanelle – possibly the least ‘me’ form of all.
Apparently, there’s a thing called ‘Performative Reading’ and the ‘internet’ or rather some Insta/TikTok 20-something lol-merchants don’t like it. Here’s a blog on it with a bonus new poem.
My backhanded, somewhat grudging tribute to Bath, from a Bristolian.
Ok, I didn’t win, but I’ll happily take Highly Commended in Rialto Nature and Place Competition 2025 thank you very much.
A love letter to libraries, in the form of a poem. ‘Library Stamps’ by Matt Gilbert
I’m very pleased have a new poem up on the Black Nore Review website. Not least because they are based in the West Country and their logo is a silhouette of Portishead’s Black Nore Lighthouse (coincidentally, there’s a poem about it in my book Street Sailing). Click the link below to read ‘it’Locked In’. Locked…
Some places are so famous, so iconic, it might be said that they visit you long before you return the favour…
Once upon a time in Norwood Park, there was a magic world of willows…
A while ago, I wrote a poem about the experience of buying records in shops, as a kind of post-streaming, tribute to the irreplaceable, tactile, sensory atmosphere of physical stores. The poem ‘Unfulfilled Playlist’ has now been published on Wild Court, where you can read it.
There’s a new poem below. I don’t tend to like explaining poems, but I do appreciate a bit of context. Like many others I suspect, not least in the USA itself, I feel profoundly shaken by recent events there. When I was six, I discovered Charlie Brown cartoons, encouraged by an American exchange student assistant…
The meaning of ‘meh’ or the beautiful mystery of subjectivity.
Richly Evocative 