Martyn Crucefix @mcrucefix - Bluesky Profile

RIP Tony Harrison – a piece on metre and voice in his poetry With the sad news of the passing of Tony Harrison, who as a working class poet had a great impact on me during my formative years of writing in the 1980s, I went back to a piece I was commissioned to write for an OUP collection of essays on his writing - both poetic and dramatic - in 1997. The book, …

RIP Tony Harrison – a piece on metre and voice in his poetry

With the sad news of the passing of Tony Harrison, who as a working class poet had a great impact on me during my formative years of writing in the 1980s, I went back to a piece I was commissioned to write for an OUP collection of essays…

29.09.2025 13:06 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Autumn Reading Dates 2025 A little flock of reading dates - replacing the swifts that have left our skies recently - have gathered themselves into something that almost resembles a brief Autumn Reading Tour. Admittedly, not going too far beyond the Greater London area - but to Maidstone and (briefly) Winchester - but of course I'm very happy to be granted these opportunities to read my work.

Autumn Reading Dates 2025

A little flock of reading dates - replacing the swifts that have left our skies recently - have gathered themselves into something that almost resembles a brief Autumn Reading Tour. Admittedly, not going too far beyond the Greater London area - but to Maidstone and…

31.08.2025 11:17 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Aonghas MacNeacail’s English Language Poems Reviewed An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. It is as a poet writing in Gaelic that MacNeacail – who died in 2022 – is most well-known, though he would himself provide translations of his work into English, what, in the poem ‘last night’, he refers to as Gaelic’s ‘sister tongue’.

Aonghas MacNeacail’s English Language Poems Reviewed

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. It is as a poet writing in Gaelic that MacNeacail – who died…

19.08.2025 12:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 32 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

Telling it slant & more with @emmalee1.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @pfanderson.bsky.social @roguestrands.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @susanrich-poet18.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @pi-and-anne.bsky.social 3/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...

12.08.2025 00:16 — 👍 7 🔁 4 💬 3 📌 1

Continuing Relevance of ‘Cargo of Limbs’ I was recently tagged in a social media post by someone doing the Sealey Challenge - one poetry book a day for the month of August! I do admire people's stamina. I was tagged because the book of the day for this person - and a mercifully short one at that - turned out to be my own chapbook, published by Hercules Editions back in 2019 under the title…

Continuing Relevance of ‘Cargo of Limbs’

I was recently tagged in a social media post by someone doing the Sealey Challenge - one poetry book a day for the month of August! I do admire people's stamina. I was tagged because the book of the day for this person - and a mercifully short one at that -…

12.08.2025 14:01 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Laurel Prize Shortlist 2025 – My Favourite Is….! The shortlist for the eco-poetry/nature poetry Laurel Prize 2025 has just been announced. The finalists – judged this year by the poets Kathleen Jamie (Chair), Daljit Nagra, and the former leader & co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales Caroline Lucas – are (in alphabetical order): Judith Beveridge Tintinnabulum (Giramondo Publishing)JR Carpenter Measures of Weather (Shearsman Books)Carol Watts…

Laurel Prize Shortlist 2025 – My Favourite Is….!

The shortlist for the eco-poetry/nature poetry Laurel Prize 2025 has just been announced. The finalists – judged this year by the poets Kathleen Jamie (Chair), Daljit Nagra, and the former leader & co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales…

05.08.2025 10:19 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

https://open.substack.com/pub/mcrucefix/p/laurel-prize-shortlist-2025-my-favourite?r=8co94&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

open.substack.com/pub/mcrucefi...

05.08.2025 11:04 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Laurel Prize Shortlist 2025 – My Favourite Is….! The shortlist for the eco-poetry/nature poetry Laurel Prize 2025 has just been announced. The finalists – judged this year by the poets Kathleen Jamie (Chair), Daljit Nagra, and the former leader & co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales Caroline Lucas – are (in alphabetical order): Judith Beveridge Tintinnabulum (Giramondo Publishing)JR Carpenter Measures of Weather (Shearsman Books)Carol Watts…

Laurel Prize Shortlist 2025 – My Favourite Is….!

The shortlist for the eco-poetry/nature poetry Laurel Prize 2025 has just been announced. The finalists – judged this year by the poets Kathleen Jamie (Chair), Daljit Nagra, and the former leader & co-leader, Green Party of England and Wales…

05.08.2025 10:19 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Scarlett Smith | Acumen Poetry

New Acumen Magazine Young Poet post, edited by @MartynCrucefix. Three ooems by Scarlett Smith, revising Greek myths and drama: 'I count the grapes. / I count my ribs. / My fig drips purple juice; the family’s curse. / (One truth I am certain of: dinner eats me.) acumen-poetry.co.uk/scarlett-smi...

05.08.2025 09:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Well, here's big news. The Laurel Prize shortlist has just been announced & Shearsman have three of the five shortlisted titles! Congratulations @jrcarpenter.bsky.social, Eliza O'Toole & Carol Watts! Thanks to judges & congratulations also to the other two finalists.🌿
laurelprize.com/2025-finalis...

04.08.2025 12:05 — 👍 15 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

Helen Farish’s new collection, ‘The Penny Dropping’, reviewed An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. Tennessee Williams once wrote that ‘memory takes a lot of poetic licence’, but Helen Farish’s memory poems in The Penny Dropping (Bloodaxe Books, 2024) declare from the outset that their intention is to set things (here quoting TS Eliot) ‘in order’, by settling ‘life accounts bravely in the face of now and then, and settle them honestly’ (here quoting Charlotte Bronte’s…

Helen Farish’s new collection, ‘The Penny Dropping’, reviewed

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. Tennessee Williams once wrote that ‘memory takes a…

15.07.2025 13:59 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Jeremy Reed’s ‘Collusive Strangers: new selected poems’ (1979-2016) reviewed An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. As the editor, Grevel Lindop, says in his Introduction to Collusive Strangers: New Selected Poems (Shearsman Books, 2024), the literary world has not taken enough notice of the remarkable oeuvre of Jeremy Reed.

Jeremy Reed’s ‘Collusive Strangers: new selected poems’ (1979-2016) reviewed

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. As the editor, Grevel Lindop, says…

02.07.2025 12:01 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Katrina Porteous’ most recent Bloodaxe collection, ‘Rhizodont’, reviewed. An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. The collection, Rhizodont, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize in 2024. The ‘rhizodont’ which provides the title for Katrina Porteous’ fourth collection (Bloodaxe Books, 2024) is not some niche root-canal dental work, but a large predatory species of fish, which became extinct 310 million years ago.

Katrina Porteous’ most recent Bloodaxe collection, ‘Rhizodont’, reviewed.

An edited (shorter) version of this review first appeared in Poetry Salzberg Review in June 2025. Many thanks to the editor, Wolfgang Görtschacher, for commissioning the writing of it. The collection, Rhizodont, was…

24.06.2025 11:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 19 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

Poets on mothering, rage fatigue & more @jasoncrane.org djvorreyer.bsky.social @thepoetslizard.bsky.social @dylan20.bsky.social @andotheritems.bsky.social @mariapopova.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social 3/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/05/poet...

13.05.2025 00:28 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 1

Redirecting...

Great review of my Enitharmon Editions Duino Elegies, now also excerpted in my Pushkin Press Selected Rilke. Many thanks.
www.facebook.com/share/p/16KJ...

08.05.2025 14:37 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Can AI Write an Original ‘Poem’ By ‘Me’? The Atlantic recently posted a link to a site which can be used by authors of any stripe to check to see what, if any, of their works have (already) been used by Meta to train AI. For the last few weeks, social media have been full of understandably irate authors who discover this is exactly what has (already) happened. It looks to me as if prose works (fiction and non-fiction) as well as critical writing of all kinds – perhaps more than that ‘difficult’ genre poetry – have particularly fallen victim to the process.

Can AI Write an Original ‘Poem’ By ‘Me’?

The Atlantic recently posted a link to a site which can be used by authors of any stripe to check to see what, if any, of their works have (already) been used by Meta to train AI. For the last few weeks, social media have been full of understandably irate…

06.05.2025 10:51 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Guest Poems | Acumen Poetry

A new poem of mine - alongside one by Finnish poet Tytti Heikkinen - has been posted on the Acumenpoetry website for a brief period. Do have a look there and it's a great journal to submit and subscribe to acumen-poetry.co.uk/guest-poems/

01.05.2025 10:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

‘I am not I’: the Slippery First-Person in Poems A couple of recent experiences with my own poems being posted/published on-line and kind readers then commenting on them has made me think again about the use of the first-person singular in poems – the use of ‘I’. Perhaps ‘think again’ is the wrong phrase as I have never – or at least not since my far distant teen years – really thought of the ‘I’ appearing in my poems as identical to the biographical, historical, personal ‘me’ tapping this out on a keyboard on a sunny Tuesday morning after the Easter weekend.

‘I am not I’: the Slippery First-Person in Poems

A couple of recent experiences with my own poems being posted/published on-line and kind readers then commenting on them has made me think again about the use of the first-person singular in poems – the use of ‘I’. Perhaps ‘think again’ is the wrong…

23.04.2025 10:03 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 14 A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @willsjack.bsky.social @rmhaines.bsky.social @racheldacusauthor.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @hanvanderhart.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social 1/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/04/poet...

08.04.2025 00:13 — 👍 11 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 2

My Covid enquiry poem has just been published in Poetry Scotland

08.04.2025 09:34 — 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Powerful new poem from the Ukraine war by Dmitry Blizniuk, tr. Sergey Gerasimov just published in Poetry Scotland 109 ed. Andy Jackson www.poetryscotland.com

05.04.2025 10:52 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Three Poems by Jürgen Becker Following on from the publication in January 2025 of my translation of 'Dressel's Garden', one of Jürgen Becker's longer poems (which recently appeared on the USA site Asymptote Journal), three more poems by this fascinating German poet have just appeared in Shearsman magazine and our hope is (permissions permitting etc) that Shearsman Books will be publishing a full collection of his work…

Three Poems by Jürgen Becker

Following on from the publication in January 2025 of my translation of 'Dressel's Garden', one of Jürgen Becker's longer poems (which recently appeared on the USA site Asymptote Journal), three more poems by this fascinating German poet have just appeared in Shearsman…

01.04.2025 10:50 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

My new substack on that tingling sensation...

18.03.2025 12:58 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Back in the A.S.M.R. I see the curious physical/psychological sensation that is ASMR is back in the news again: here's a recent Guardian piece about it which suggests that 'younger adults are increasingly overwhelmed by in-person interaction soothing themselves instead with sensory online content, according to a report on the wildly popular online content known as ASMR'. It reminded me that in the early days of this blog, I posted a little piece about my own experience of the phenomenon and - 10 years is a long time in blogging - I thought it would be worthwhile re-posting the piece.

ASMR seems linked to a particular quality of attention-giving which yields a rippling of pleasure, close to the erotic, but not the same as that. It is powerful yet undramatic; it is most common in quiet moments of observation.

18.03.2025 11:29 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

Two New Poems – at ‘The High Window’ Two new poems by yours truly - one featuring class, eroticism, and valeting a car and the other of 4 quatrains of mourning modelled on a little-know poem by Bertolt Brecht - have just been published/posted on The High Window website here. Do click the link and read the poems there - the site (edited by poet David Cooke) publishes a number of poems by different authors, so to see mine scroll down (alphabetically).

Two New Poems – at ‘The High Window’

Two new poems by yours truly - one featuring class, eroticism, and valeting a car and the other of 4 quatrains of mourning modelled on a little-know poem by Bertolt Brecht - have just been published/posted on The High Window website here. Do click the link and…

09.03.2025 12:37 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Durs Grünbein Reading at The Goethe-Institute, London Please Note: this blog and website are now captured and preserved at the UK Web Archive held at The British Museum. Many thanks to them. The highlight of last week was attending Durs Grünbein’s reading at The Goethe- Institute, where he was in discussion with his English translator, Karen Leeder. At the beginning of the evening, Grünbein joked that he'd not been in the UK for a few years and this was the first time he’d had to produce his passport (the blessings of Brexit).

Durs Grünbein Reading at The Goethe-Institute, London

Please Note: this blog and website are now captured and preserved at the UK Web Archive held at The British Museum. Many thanks to them. The highlight of last week was attending Durs Grünbein’s reading at The Goethe- Institute, where he was in…

25.02.2025 11:35 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Upcoming event remembering the work of Geoffrey Grigson - poet, critic, anthologist West Greenwich Library 7.30pm, on Tuesday March 4th John Greening Blake Morrison Graham High Joe Banks . Here's my review of GG's recent Selected Poems open.substack.com/pub/mcrucefi...

18.02.2025 12:48 — 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Remembering Geoffrey Grigson I’ve recently seen announced a celebration of the work of Geoffrey Grigson (1905-1985), scheduled to take place at 7.30pm, on Tuesday March 4th at West Greenwich Library. The event is called ‘In His Own Voice: Geoffrey’s Grigson’s Poetry’ and is being organised by John Greening with contributions from Grigson’s daughter, Caroline, his grandson, Joe Banks, and poets Graham High and Blake Morrison (and archive recordings of the poet himself).

Remembering Geoffrey Grigson

I’ve recently seen announced a celebration of the work of Geoffrey Grigson (1905-1985), scheduled to take place at 7.30pm, on Tuesday March 4th at West Greenwich Library. The event is called ‘In His Own Voice: Geoffrey’s Grigson’s Poetry’ and is being organised by John…

18.02.2025 12:29 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Poetry events in London 1989-1993 remembered... open.substack.com/pub/mcrucefi...

04.02.2025 15:12 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Remembering Blue Nose Poetry events in London I recently attended the launch of Philip Gross’ new collection, The Shores of Vaikus (Bloodaxe Books, 2024) at the Estonian Embassy (the poems and prose pieces in the book refer to Gross’ father’s Estonian heritage and the poet’s visits to that country). I’ve followed his poetry since Faber published The Ice Factory in 1984. Neither of us could recall when we’d last met up but, after the event, I remembered that Philip was one of the first poets to read at the series of poetry readings (and associated workshops) I helped curate in the late 1980s/early 1990s, the Blue Nose Poetry series in London.

Remembering Blue Nose Poetry events in London

I recently attended the launch of Philip Gross’ new collection, The Shores of Vaikus (Bloodaxe Books, 2024) at the Estonian Embassy (the poems and prose pieces in the book refer to Gross’ father’s Estonian heritage and the poet’s visits to that…

04.02.2025 14:57 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Martyn Crucefix

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