Kathy Pimlott

July 2021  

So far 2021 has been a bit of a mess for me with family commitments, general malaise and supressed fury with this dreadful government of ours bringing out the very worst in people. I haven’t written very much and have found it difficult to maintain concentration. So I was delighted when new venture, The Friday Poem, picked one of my more odd poems to feature this month. It is a particular treat to have the editors briefly note why they chose the poem: "We chose Kathy Pimlott’s darkly funny poem ‘The Baby in the Wardrobe’ because we love the way it takes an unlikely event and uses it as a point of departure to get wildly surreal. Is the baby real? What does the baby stand for? There are more questions than answers in this poem, but the gorgeous mix of horror and humour make it a splendid ride."

Of course, I am biased, but I recommend you sign up for the weekly newsletter which comes with a poem, articles and reviews. And, go on, submit - they're very quick. 

Recently I've spent very enjoyable Thursday lunchtimes in the zoom company of Katy Evans Bush and half a dozen others close reading a poem a session. It feels like the most delicious of self-indulgent treats. Another treat was the 15-minute or so discussion of the use of em dashes in a recent edition of Radio 3's The Verb which you can listen to or download here. It's about punctuation in general, with Ian McMillan and Kei Miller among others - highly recommended. Or you could try the short BBC Radio 4 series On Form with Aviva Dautch and Andrew McMillan, covering the sonnet, the ghazal and the villanelle - each with wonderful familiar and unfamiliar examples read by Juliet Stevenson. ( I listen on headphones while pretending to be watching the football).

​I'm reading

Gillian Clarke's The Hours (Secret Sleep Books), Geraldine Clarkson's Crucifox​ (Verve Poetry Press); Elaine Beckett's Sea Creature Regrows Entire Body (Verve Poetry Press) and Richard Price's The Owner of the Sea​ (Carcanet).