Hola! Just a wee post to share a drawing what I done during my post-second-year-review-hand-in-week-off. Decided to try out something new so I gots me a black page notepad and some Posca pens and went mad for it. I’ve completely fallen in love with Posca pens now and we are to be wed this coming September (seriously, did you know that people CAN actually fall in love with objects? Thanks BBC’s Casualty, season 30, episode 3, “Objectum Sexuality” for bringing this to our attention.) Anyway yeah, here’s my latest project. Mazza OUT!

Really struggling to figure out how to open this blog so let’s start with a short hello: hi! How have you been? That’s great. I’m alright as well, just hacking away at my little block, trying to make something meaningful out of it. SO, PALS! I’m officially “back” after a short break from pretty much everything. In September I decided to take some time away from my PhD; a tough decision that wasn’t made lightly, but has been, I think, for the best. Basically I just wasn’t producing poetry because I was dealing with lots of mad life issues (see here for a very brief insight into that). I decide…

Oh, hello. So… I went and got myself a website. No real reasoning involved, just thought to myself, “Hey, a website. Yeah.” Because humans, as a species, are impulsive, aren’t we? Us humans just do stuff, don’t we? We get an idea and just go for it. And I’m deffo a human, there’s no question about that. Is there? Answers on a postcard please. Anyway, you may remember me from such blogs as the now defunct Rattle Bag, God rest its soul. I mean, I say defunct, maybe I’ll revive it at some point, because as we established, I’m only human and sometimes I miss the anonymity of it all. Y’know, just …

This is my new blog. I’m hoping to update it weekly and will use it as a means of documenting my life as a poet, researcher, dog owner, comedian and artist. Doing this because I read that Marianne Moore wrote 5 personal essays a week while she was a student and while I can’t really say that these posts will be “personal essays”, I’m trying to get more general writing done on a week-to-week basis and a blog seemed like a good way to do it. Plus Mazza Moore is one of my research subjects and she was a stone cold poetry babe master, so hers isn’t a bad book from which to take a leaf. I also want…

So, anyone else been inordinately broody since the EU referendum results rolled in to ruin our lives? Just me? Weird, I assumed recurring dreams of pregnancy and babies would be totally normal in a time of massive political crisis and uncertainty about the future… A few baby designs we’re toying with However, since I’m not planning any babies until I’ve given birth to a completed PhD, we’ll move on. ISN’T THIS EU STUFF A RIGHT BLOODY MESS? Honestly, it was so initially all-consuming I had to ask my beloved to put daytime blocks on all social media and news sites because I was getting n.o.t.h…

Quick test to see if this will make a post to announce I have won the poetry prize.

It’s been another alarmingly snappy week over here at Marianne Towers, so much so that I am apt to wonder if someone is playing a trick on me – pretty sure none of the clocks in the flat are correct, at least, none of them show the same time and often I’ll settle down for LITERALLY ONE GAME of Candy Crush and all of a sudden three hours have passed and I’m still not a published poet. Did I say we bought a sunrise alarm clock? Well, we bought a sunrise alarm clock and it’s actually pretty cool. You set the time you want to wake up, then half an hour before the light comes on and gently brighte…

Lads, lads, lads. I missed a blog innit. Actually I missed two. I don’t think anyone besides be noticed or was disappointed by it, so I could probably get away with not drawing attention to it. HOWEVER, Catholic guilt forces me to acknowledge the error of my ways and to apologise profusely for it. The main reason I didn’t write any blogs for two weeks is because, while there’s been lots going on, I don’t really have a lot to say about any of it in particular. Still don’t, but if I leave it any longer, I may implode. So here’s a really quick run down of some (but not all) things that have happ…

Apparently it’s Monday again already, so time for another blog. As usual, I feel like I haven’t done that much this week, but when I look back through my notes I realise I’ve actually read quite a lot so that’s good! One of my resolutions this year (yeah, I know I wasn’t going to tell you, butIMG_0300 it’s relevant now) was to date the pages of my notebook and write down literally any “interesting” thought I might have throughout the day. A sort of pseudo diary, I suppose, because I’m not really recording events as such, just images and musings. So yes, I’m using “pseudo” to mean both “sham” …

As Popeye might say after a very busy period of work, “Ug ug ug ug ug ug ug! I’ve been so busy lately, it has been really mad”, and I’d like to mirror those sentiments exactly as an explanation for why I haven’t written a blog in so long. I had my second year review deadline a couple of weeks ago and I also (perhaps foolishly, only time will tell) signed up to teach next year so have been doing some prep stuff for that, all the while cracking on with some hot talking animal/poetry research. Earlier in the week I was feeling a bit BLAH about the whole PhD situation, though I’m assured that’s j…

Has it really been a week since last I blogged? What’s the deal with Time these days? Have the Tories made cuts to that too? I’m feeling kind of like the ol’ Prof from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at the moment. Or, at least I’m feeling how I imagine he feels; confused, slow and desperate to get back to Narnia. As is usual for this time of year, I have some kind of sinus issue that has been building for a good few weeks. This involves pain across my nose, cheeks, eyes and forehead, aka all the places everyone loves having constant pain. Went to the doctor and got a sweet steroid nasa…

Well, what a jumbled week it’s been. Very nearly decided to can writing a blog since I wasn’t sure I had that much to say, but then the ghost of Marianne Moore haunted me, waving myriad personal essays in my face and I was thusly compelled to take up my keyboard and type for my life. We got our puppy neutered this week. In all honesty, he’s been a bit of a shit towards us of late. The growly, barky, bitey kind of shit that you really don’t want to be around. You really come to see yourself as ridiculous when you have your head in a dog cage, growling loudly in order to take back a sock from …