‘Steeple’ poem on Poetry Breakfast

Thanks to Jean Atkin for selecting my poem ‘Steeple’ for Wenlock Books’ Poetry Breakfast blog, on the subject of Staring into Space featuring Char March. Thanks also to Anna Dreda.

Online Poetry Workshop Tomorrow

Looking forward to kicking off the Poetry Business digital workshops tomorrow morning. An interesting line-up of guest tutors.

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New Work in NOON: Journal of the Short Poem

I have four new poems, including ‘Long Tall Sally’ in issue 19 of NOON: Journal of the Short Poem. Thanks to Philip Rowland. Issue 19 can be read on Issuu or as a pdf on NOON’s website.

Shearsman 129 & 130

I have four new poems in the latest Shearsman, in good company. Thanks to Kelvin Corcoran and Tony Frazer.

‘Sky Blues Bus’ poem on BBC Radio 3

My poem ‘Sky Blues Bus’ will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 Words and Music on 3rd October 2021, a feature on Coventry and Transport as part of the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival. ‘Sky Blues Bus’ is published in Birmingham Canal Navigation (Knives Forks & Spoons) and was commissioned by the Centre for Travel Writing Studies at Nottingham Trent University. Warm thanks to everyone involved.

‘Sky Blues Bus’ is written partly ‘in the voice of’ the bus which carried Coventry City Football team through Coventry following their historic victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the 1987 FA Cup final. It also references the bombing of Coventry in 1940 during the second world war. I wrote the poem after encountering the bus in the brilliant Coventry Transport Museum.

Poetry Business online workshop Wed 4 August

There are a handful of tickets left for my Poetry Business digital workshop on Wed 4th August (11am BST). You can book here. Really looking forward to it.

Latest reviews of Another Last Word and Birmingham Canal Navigation

Thanks to David Belbin for his review of my pamphlet Another Last Word, on the Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature website. I must get hold of those Thom Gunn letters – reading David’s review has taken me back to the poems.

Thanks also for Sam Smith for his review of Birmingham Canal Navigation in the latest issue of The Journal.

Review of Birmingham Canal Navigation in PN Review

Thanks to Rory Waterman for his review of my pamphlet Birmingham Canal Navigation in PN Review 259. ‘Our heritage is part of our present, and Yates crashes one into another.’ Sounds right.

Online Workshop for the Poetry Business

I’m very much looking forward to leading an online poetry workshop tomorrow morning for the Poetry Business. I’ve already seen the list of writers who have signed up, and it’s going to be great.

Another Last Word

Cover Image: Andrew Taylor, Nottingham, March 2020

Here’s my new collection, Another Last Word, a chapbook published by The Red Ceilings Press. A limited edition of 40 numbered copies. Thanks to Mark Cobley.

‘I laughed out loud as well as now and then wincing. Individually they’re like when some cartoons become art, like ‘Lost Consonants’ in the Guardian, but they’re even more than that altogether, the way the poems work with each other. I could see you reading them in Dictionary Corner on Eight Out of Ten Cats Does Countdown, though you’d have to win X Factor first, to be invited on’ – Peter Sansom

Poems from the front line of a long-term relationship in and out of lockdown. A survival guide, perhaps. Featuring a walk in the rain, a bar of expensive chocolate, The Beatles Revolver, the Tai Chi sword form, a cucumber, a suitcase, revolving doors, War and Peace, poppadoms, wet lettuce and a box of new colouring pencils. Cliff Yates’s poems have sometimes featured dialogue; this collection consists almost entirely of dialogue. Fragmentary, Zen-like, cartoonesque, highly-wrought poems, where authorship is questioned and responsibility shared.