Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Two New Poems in Tuck Magazine!



It's lovely to be included in online magazine Tuck again. I'm sure other people who write poems have their favourites, like me, and I particularly like these two new poems Aboard The Waits Train and Playground of My Youth which I submitted to Tuck, thinking they might be a good fit.

I actually tried to write a poem about listening to Tom Waits a few times, before a theme came to mind. I don't know why I felt like capturing the moment but there you go. Playground of My Youth I wrote on a visit home to Dublin. I grew up near a lot of parks and some of my time was slightly misspent.

All Aboard The Waits Train 
(listening to Tom Waits)

All aboard the Waits train
It’s a lovely sound you make and I’m not the first to say it
Leave your bags and credit cards behind
Find a seat that slides
You move me

read more...

Playground of My Youth

The hill
Playground of my youth
An hour after school
The grass always damp
shadowed by oak trees

read more...

I've been enjoying Tuck over the years since they published my poems Prime Time Guy and Sifting for Gold. As an arts and politics magazine they publish everything from photography, like these lovely movements in the dark, to current affairs essays to a lot more poetry and prose like these fast-moving poems by Scott Thomas Outlar.

I also really enjoyed interviewing Tuck's managing editor Val B. Russell two years ago.

So fix yourself a cup of tea and check out the links!

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Beverly Edited

To whom it concerns, Beverly has just come back from it's editing holiday covered in crossings out and sticky notes. I'll be working on the final, final draft over this summer but it won't be my usual sprint, it will be more like a meandering walk taking in a weekend here and a week evening there - due to a new job that is eating into my work-life balance at the moment.

But I've had a good break from thinking about the story and I'm looking forward to getting back into it with editor's comments, friends comments and a fresh perspective.

Stayed tuned for exciting updates over the summer about book covers and marketing ideas!....

In the meantime, here's the Beverly story so far.