I discuss how we might use single stanza poems and go on a tangent about how city environments are created to threaten us with violence.

References: 'Farther' in Skirrid Hill by Owen Sheers / 'Checkout' in The Air Year by Caroline Bird / 'Baby' and 'Snake' in Unexhausted Time by Emily Berry / 'Fuck / Concrete' in The Actual by Inua Ellams. Music by Portamento.

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I discuss constraints and how to use them. As always, there are writing prompts and poetry readings!

References: Oulipo / Aubrey Beardsley / 'Pepys' from The Kids by Hannah Lowe / 'Train Triolet (16:46 to Brighton)' from Hiding to Nothing by Anita Pati / 'The Moose' from Complete Poems by Elizabeth Bishop. Music by Portamento.

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I discuss how we might approach writing poetry about transformations.

References: 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson / Touchstone - coined by Matthew Arnold / 'Man in a Fox Suit' by Michael Symmons Roberts in The best of poetry london: Poetry and prose 1988-2013 ed. by Tim Dooley and Martha Kapos / 'Alter Ego 1: Isabella Rossellini in Death Becomes Her' by Matthew Haigh in Alter Egos: a Bad Betty anthology ed. by Amy Acre and Jack Wildhall / 'Goblin Market' by Christina Rossetti.

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Today I discuss ekphrasis - how might we write about artworks?

References: 'The Shield of Achilles' - W.H. Auden / 'Colour Photographs of Tsarist Russia' from On Balance by Sinéad Morrissey / 'Portraits of Tudor Statesmen' by U.A. Fanthorpe from Poems of London ed. by Christopher Reid / 'Queen Mary's Rose Garden' by Sylvia Plath from Poems of London ed. by Christopher Reid. Music by Portamento.

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A workshop with poems and prompts about the otherworldly.

References: 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' - John Keats / John Keats and ‘negative capability’ - Essay on the British Library website / 'Waking' from Moving Day by Jenny King / 'This Spirit' from Unexhausted Time by Emily Berry / 'Strange Language in Night Fog' from Selling Manhattan by Carol Ann Duffy / 'Moonrise' by Gerard Manley Hopkins in Rattle Bag ed. by Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes / Creative Writing for Dreamers by Joan Harthan. Music by Portamento.

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I discuss how we can use nonsense poetry to write for fun and gravitas.

References: 'Antigonish (I met a man who wasn't there)' by Hughes Mearns / 'Jabberwocky' by Lewis Carroll / 'On the Ning Nang Nong' by Spike Milligan.

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I discuss how the way we move impacts the way we write.

References: 'Augmentation' from The Illustrated Woman by Helen Mort / 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge / 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798' by William Wordsworth and 'A Summer Evening's Meditation' by Anna Laetitia Barbauld from Romanticism: An Anthology (Fourth Edition) Edited by Duncan Wu.

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A short and sweet one today. I talk about how we might approach writing difficult emotions.

References: 'My Dead Father’s General Store in the Middle of a Desert' by Lee Stockdale (National Poetry Competition Winner. Poetry Society Website.) / 'I Have Only My Pen, My Voice and My Heart: On Writing To Bear Witness' by Hafsah Aneela Bashir from Why I Write Poetry (ed. by Ian Humphreys) / 'The Night My Mother Died I Dreamt of Sailors' from Violet by Selima Hill / 'Room Service' from Savage Tales by Tara Bergin / 'My Mother on a Diving Board' by Leo Boix from Islands are but Mountains. Music by Portamento.

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A chilled workshop with lots of poems about the moon, a poem of my own, and a nocturnal prompt.

References: The Ink Dark Moon by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu (translated by Jane Hirshfield) / 'The Moon' from The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson / 'The Moon and The Yew Tree' from Sylvia Plath Poems / 'I'm Over the Moon' from Liquid Flesh by Brenda Shaughnessy / 'Moon Quilt Essay' from Material Properties by Jacob Polley / 'Lucent' from Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman / I, Lala The Poems of Lal Ded / 'Barn Owl' by Georgia Conlon. Music by Portamento.

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I discuss spring, trees, and Japanese culture and poetry, and set you a blossomy writing prompt.

References: 'Simon Armitage savours spring ‘ecstasy and melancholy’ on World Poetry Day' - article by Tobi Thomas / 'Spring Night...' by Matsuo Bashō / 'Wakened by the scent...' by Izumi Shikibu in The Ink Dark Moon (translated by Jane Hirshfield). Music by Portamento (his new track 'Real Love' is out now!).

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