Writing new poetry

It's been quite a while since my last poetry collection, The Elephant Tests, was published. 2013, in fact, although it's still available from Nine Arches Press, along with a plethora of new collections from new poets (very unsubtle hint for anyone stuck for Christmas present ideas for their literary friends, there).

In the meantime, I haven't written a huge amount of poetry. It hasn't been down to writer's block, exactly, although at times I have found myself wanting to write, but struggling to find ways to do so without retreading old ground.

A bigger reason is that I've been in self-imposed exile in the land of prose, first writing A Sky Full Of Birds (oops, there's another shameless plug), and then working on a couple of other prose projects that may or may not see the light of day eventually. And I've enjoyed that a lot, but it's a very different place to poetry world in all sorts of ways.

Just in the last few weeks, though, I've been drifting back into poetry, writing new poems and revisiting half-finished ones with fresh ideas and fresh impetus. I've got one or two new processes and exercises that I'd like to try. And I've been reading more poetry, too, at lunchtimes especially, and rediscovering the thrill of being inspired, and the danger of imitating an admired poet's style too closely.

So, in the next few weeks, I'll start posting a few reviews, previews, and discussions of poetry, and we'll see what happens.