‘The Result is What You See Today’: Poems about Running

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It’s exciting to have a poem published in this new anthology from Smith/Doorstop, edited by Paul Deaton, Kim Moore and Ben Wilkinson. It’s fascinating to see how many poets have taken inspiration from running – as well as to read in the biographies how many different reasons people have for doing it. There are poems here about every possible aspect of running, from memories of cross country races at school to Parkruns. The neighbour-poem to mine, People Who Go Running by Joe Caldwell, will make an instant connection with any reader who has a runner in their life: ‘If you live with them, they’ll forget to make dinner / as they’re busy signing up for half marathons / in Clowne and Stamford.’

I wrote my poem, Night Run, last October when the nights were drawing in and I was just starting to have to steel myself to run in the dark again. I hate the prospect of running in the dark, especially after a long day at work, but have never yet regretted a night run once I’ve managed to get myself out of the house. The poem tries to capture that movement from reluctance to exhilaration, which I hope is something that other runners might identify with.

‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan

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I’m teaching one of my favourite texts with my Year 9 class at the moment – The Arrival by Shaun Tan. It might seem strange to be studying an entirely wordless graphic novel in an English classroom, but I find that it lends itself to a sophisticated level of very close ‘reading’ of each image, and I love the collaborative nature of this as students point things out to each other and explore what they think is going on, with so much left to the reader’s imagination. There’s a wonderful essay on Shaun Tan’s website called Picturebooks: Who are they for? which outlines this process really well. We’re also using The Arrival as a stimulus for creative writing too, learning to apply some of the visual techniques Tan uses, such as zooming out and showing not telling, to our own writing. I’m really looking forward to seeing the graphic novels and stories my students will have produced by the end of the unit.

HappenStance Wrapper-Rhyme Challenge

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Helena Nelson at Happenstance Press recently launched the International Wrapper-Rhyme Challenge. The idea is simple: write a rhyming poem about a food or beverage on the wrapper itself. All the entries are to be exhibited at StAnza, Scotland’s poetry festival, in 2020. It’s great to find a poetry competition that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and I really enjoyed the playfulness of writing on a box of my favourite peanut Nakd bars. I found it really made me read the wording on the packaging carefully as I used it for inspiration for my poem. I’ll look forward to seeing the final exhibition next year. (Closing date for entries, if you’re interested, is 25th December 2019.)

Year 7 poetry anthologies

Our Year 7 Poetry scheme of work covers poems from a range of periods and in a diverse range of forms and styles. Throughout the unit, students read and explore poems by professional poets and are then invited to respond with their own work, learning about aspects of craft such as rhythm, line breaks and imagery as they go. My favourite part comes at the end, when students create their own anthologies, including a mixture of their own poems and those by other poets that they’ve read and enjoyed. It’s lovely to see what happens when students are given freedom and ownership. This year’s anthologies were particularly creative, including one poem, Reflection, which had entirely been written backwards. On the opposite page, the student had stuck a mirror so that the poem could be read forwards. Other students had experimented with poems which involved key words or lines being written on fold-out bits of paper. There’s something wonderfully tactile about these little books which is particularly refreshing in an age when so much reading is done on-screen. I also love the titles of these anthologies, A Journey Through My Brain being a particular favourite.

Ghost-whispering: A poetry masterclass with Alison Binney at Gladstone’s Library – Saturday 23rd May 2026, 10.30am to 3.00pm

This poetry-writing masterclass with Alison Binney asks participants to think about the voices of women from the past. What are they saying? Why are they saying it? How are they saying it? What are others saying about them? How might their voices speak to our lives today?

The poems in Women of our Ilk, Alison’s work in progress, are inspired by historical evidence from a range of sources: court reports, monuments, handbills, photographs, graffiti etched on a window. In this masterclass she’ll share early drafts and final versions of poems that have been created in this way, showing how in each of which Alison uses historical artefacts to try to listen carefully to the voices of women from the past.

Alison will then provide a range of historical artefacts for participants to work with during the workshop, encouraging people to listen to what these artefacts might be whispering to them, and to use some of the approaches demonstrated – creating found poetry, writing ekphrastic poetry, echoing aspects of poetic form – to craft their own poems inspired by historical sources. At least some of the historical artefacts available will come from the collections right here at Gladstone’s Library, lending an even greater sense of immediacy and grounding to the day’s exploration and writing.

The day will finish with an opportunity for participants to share and workshop new poems.

Tickets will be released when Gladstone’s Library’s 2026 programme goes live.

Please note, tickets cannot be refunded or used for another event if ticketholders are unable to attend. All ticket purchases support us to care for the Library building and the collections it holds. As a charity, Gladstone’s Library receives no government funding, so all purchases, Gift Aid and donations, are deeply appreciated.

Please note that tickets for this event are e-tickets. Book online and have your ticket emailed directly to you.

A print and collect service is available to those without access to email facilities for a small charge to cover our admin costs. Call 01244 532350 or email enquiries@gladlib.org for more information. Printed tickets will be available to collect from Reception before the event.

Guernsey Poems on the Move

I was delighted to have had two poems selected in the Guernsey Poems on the Move competition by judge Maura Dooley. It was lovely to be able to go to the winners’ ceremony on 1st May, and to hear all of the other chosen poems. The unique thing about this competition is that the winning poems are displayed on Guernsey buses for a year. Although the fleet of buses had just changed when I visited, so our poems had not yet been displayed there, it was exciting to see my poems on the backs of seats on the Aurigny plane. I’m planning a visit back in October to try to track my poems down – not an easy task given that Guernsey has quite a few different bus routes!

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