Ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, The Thorn Tree in the Quadrangle of St. Mary’s College. This tree is purported to have been planted by Mary Queen of Scots in 1563, and finally, St. Andrews Castle.

During the week commencing 21 April I spent a great four days at beautiful St. Andrews. It really is the most amazing place. T Staff at the school of English look out on St. Andrews Castle and then out to sea. I really don’t know how anyone manages to get any work done, given the view they have from their windows.

It was lovely catching up with Robert Crawford again and chatting with Don Paterson. Isn’t it funny how the busiest of people can always somehow manage to find time for you!

In between planning presentations and the usual exciting stuff of housework, (and Oh yes! being informed that next year I am to become the mother of the bride and that dreaded figure, a mother-in-law)I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the usefulness of poetry, linked of course to Horace’s view that it should be both beautiful and useful.

Naturally, when Horace talked about ‘useful’ he had entirely different ideas in his mind than I have now - I wouldn’t dream of setting myself up as a teacher of morals and behaviour, but then I guess he wouldn’t have gone to down town Rome to tackle issues of exclusion, or to an endangered patch of green to provide an opportunity for the local community to express their views and anxieties. Which ever way you look at it though, I suppose both Horace and myself are making a social commentary - would that I could make mine with his eloquence!

I’m not sure yet whether this is the name by which our group will be known, but basically we are members of the Poetry Society with
TS, DL and DH postcodes. This evening, 31 March, marked our second meeting as a group and I have to say that I’d forgotten how enjoyable it can be meeting with like-minded people simply to discuss poetry and poems in an informal setting.

Poetry, especially poetry-writing can be quite a lonely activity, sometimes you can be so close to your own work as not to be able to cast a good critical eye over it. Even more remarkably sometimes there are threads and sub-texts in your work that you didn’t know were there until someone else told you.

If anyone reading this blog wants to find out more about the Poetry Society or Poetry Society Stanzas go to

Join the Poetry Society: www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/membership/

Please see http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/membership/news/.

Contrary to popular belief I have not left the country, I’ve just not been blogging recently.

My residency at the Museum of Antiquities has come to an end. It has been a great experience and I’ve worked with some fantastic people on this project. The director, Lindsay Allason-Jones commissioned me to write a small collection of 28 poems to celebrate the closing of this wonderful museum prior to its incorporation into the Great North Museum.

The collection with great accompanying photographs taken by the Museum’s IT and media officer, Glyn Goodrick is available from Flambard Press at www.flambardpress.co.uk

Along with Professor Stephen Harrison I contributed to the series, ‘The Essay: Greek and Latin Voices’ on BBC Radio 3 last night, 18th December, 2007 at 11pm

If you missed my comments and reading why not use the Listen Again facility on the BBC website, the link for this programme is:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/speechanddrama/index.shtml

Calling all Horace fans: Listen to BBC Radio 3 at 11pm on Tuesday, 18th December, 2007 to hear Professor Stephen Harrison, Fellow and Tutor in Classics, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, Professor of Classical Languages and Literature, University of Oxford, giving a commentary, and myself reading some of my ‘versions’ of Horace poems.

The programme is called, The Essay:Greek and Latin Voices

Friday 16 November was an evening to remember for me and I hope too, for the sixty or so members of the audience. Well done and thank you to everyone who came and made Friday such a success. A special thanks to Kay Easson at the Lit and Phil for inviting Stephen Harrison and myself to deliver this event.

I owe a big thank-you to Professor Stephen Harrison who came up from Oxford specially to give commentaries on how my poems relate to the Horatian texts and I know from the feedback I’ve had so far that everyone found his explanations very interesting and enlightening.

After the event a twelve of us went to supper and I must say I felt very supported by the classics professors, lecturers and senior lecturers from Newcastle, Durham and Glasgow Universities.

For me this was a celebration not only of my own poetry but of Horace himself and the evening ending with a lovely supper made the whole event feel like a proper Horace symposium. In terms of nunc est bibendum, it was and we did! Cheers Horace!

It’s Sunday night, 16 September and I’m preparing to return home tomorrow. There are strains of a lovely jazz concert coming from the Old Bank Hotel, really soulful and pensive which sort of sums up how I feel right now.

It’s been a eventful visit actually, apart from my recording the programme for BBC Radio 3 and visiting Chedworth and Cirencester, I spent all day last Friday at a conference about Theorising Performance which was very interesting and there were lots of overlaps between the idea of performance and poetry readings. I then went to a lovely launch party and supper at Magdalen for Oliver Taplin’s latest book. We had an open-air supper under the cloisters at Magdalen and it was great catching up with so many people I know and meeting new ones.

Anyway, back to the packing!

This face, darling, could bring wise men to war,
it doesn’t need your macho-man protection.
I’m used to being the centre of attention,
it’s jealousy I seek, not country air.

The smell of goat’s best sampled from afar,
as for lyre-skills, dear, that’s pure invention,
a ruse, to make you think it’s my intention
to sooth your muse, not follow my own star.

I’ll gladly join you in a glass of red,
but I’m not for interweaving through the night.
By ten I’m usually ready for my bed,
to dream of Cyrus’ passions at their height.

And turning men to pigs; that’s in your head.
You do it to yourselves – put out the light.

For the first time since I arrived I finally got to my favourite spot in the Corpus library. I’m in search of information on Horace’s women, so that I can give them the opportunity to answer back in my version of Odes Book I.

I had another fascinating lunchtime chat about that very subject with Robin Nisbet on Wednesday. He’s an absolute fountain of knowledge and of course I do appreciate that it is a matter of debate about whether the named women in Horace’s Odes actually existed. One of the good things about writing poetry is that one can take liberties, so whether or not they really did exist in Horace’s poems, I have given them a life in my versions, based on information and inspiration from various Odes.

I don’t feel brave enough to share them with Robin, but have posted one in my poetry section - enjoy!

I visited the Roman Villa at Chedworth and Cirencester Museum on Thursday and saw some fantastic mosaics. If I could have floors like this I would rip my carpets up tomorrow!

I found the ones at Chedworth really inspiring because they are still positioned in exactly the place they were originally laid down. I found myself wondering how many sandal-clad feet had trodden those mosaics, imagined the chatter in the bath house, it’s so much more real when these things are left in their original places.

I bought a couple of lovely postcards of some of the mosaics, but I can’t put them up here because of copyright restrictions. I’m hoping that a photograph I took will turn out OK so that I can put one up here later.

I’ve had a really busy few days since I arrived, the most exciting of which was when I went to BBC Radio Oxford with Professor Stephen Harrison to record our contribution to a series of Horace programmes under the title, ‘Classical Essay’, to be broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in the week commencing 17 December 2007.

We had to work through a live link to Bristol and they could pick up noises from our studio in Oxford that we couldn’t even hear ourselves! The wonders of technology.

Since doing the recording a horrible thought struck me, when I was asked to speak so that they could get a sound level, I recited ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, I hope they don’t get it mixed up with my Horace poems!

Forgot to mention the reference to Kybald Twychen, this is the old house where I’m staying which was once the home of Eduard Fraenkel himself.

When I arrived on Monday I had to reposition the furniture so that I could find a piece of level floor for the desk. I have enough trouble with computers without trying to work on a slant! But the house has great character and I feel very cosy here.

This coming Monday sees me once again, bound for Corpus Christi College, Oxford. I am looking forward to having time to think, reflect, and do some rewrites of my current work in progress, plus I have to contribute to another exciting little project about which more later!

I continue to be wrapped up in Horace and in that connection, will be ‘in conversation with Professor Stephen Harrison’ of Oxford University. The event will take place at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle at 7pm on November, 16th 2007, so if you’re reading this blog, do come along and support the evening.