The Return of the Slush Poet

The Slush Poet came to be in 2012 when I first felt the urge to write poems and wanted somewhere to share them. I was astounded at the following my poems garnered and encouraged by that following to write better poems, many of which subsequently crept out of the slush piles and into prestigious journals and eventually books.

This is my first post since 2014... So, where did I go?

The answer is, down two distinct rabbit holes in quick succession. The first was my decision to undertake an MA in Creative Writing under the tutelage of the then Poet Laureate. This led me to adopt techniques that lent greater density, complexity, and structure to my poems. Unfortunately these attributes seem to have been anathema to publishers since very few of the poems I thought my best ever got published. This was, let us say, deflating.

The second rabbit hole was Brexit, which I opposed vehemently and campaigned against, re-purposing my Slush Poet Twitter account as 'Brexit Job Losses'. Like Alice in Wonderland I encountered many bizarre characters down this particular rabbit hole, one of whom was myself, for political activism is a drug that can make one act quite out of character.

The result is that I stopped writing poems a couple of years ago, having neither the desire to write them nor an audience to appreciate them. 

But like Sean Connery, I have learned never to say never. So it is time to attempt some kind of reset. I am going to post on this blog all of my best poems, the ones I think have the most merit irrespective of whether they were ever published. My modesty cringes, but I have to say there are some corkers among them and I hope, as I upload them, they are enjoyed and I get to rekindle my enthusiasm for the art.

Here goes...