The Poetry of Rob Radcliffe

This is from January 1997. A poem about walking in the dark, colliding with the dawn… Darkest Before Dawn Movement, just there, branch Like a windscreen wiper Over moon. Ineffective. Then stillness till the screech Of car beyond Reminds me of houses And all that goes with them. Pennines, slumbering jurassics, Backdrop to the carnival [...]

I wrote this about a girl I once knew. She was agoraphobic. I tried to imagine what it was like and this poem was the result! An illustrated version of this poem first appeared in FLUX magazine, an arts and culture magazine I think is still going and on sale in the newsagents of Manchester [...]

It’s the middle of the night, and I remember during long periods when I was unemployed and frustrated, I would emulate Marcel Proust by maintaining a nocturnal existence. I’ve always been of a nocturnal bent, really – I love the interesting pause in the world when everyone else (at least locally!) is asleep, and I [...]

I deliberately didn’t post anything on Valentine’s Day. It would have been far too distasteful to dig out a love poem and post it just because a particular day demanded it. Last post was a simple love poem, this one is about something more specific. Just one of those nights with an epiphany, an awakening [...]

A simple little poem, probably best consigned to the poetic dustbin, but since it’s 12 months before it would be appropriate to publish it again, I thought I might as well include this very short old poem from my student days (we’re talking about February 1990 here!). I am still working up to actually starting [...]

I wrote this poem when I was supposed to be working. As the title suggests, I was in an office at the time. It’s quite a sad and desperate piece, but then the futility of humdrum daily life can often be quite sad and desperate. I’ve been very busy lately running the business that is [...]

I’m starting with some old stuff. This one’s about thinking and writing, and that’s all I’ll say… Vision A footprint on the moon? Yes, a step In the once-happeningness of pilgrimage; Then, the furtive overlapping of cloud. My heart tills an alertness of love, Setting store for tomorrow’s troubles. I hunker down by the field [...]

Welcome to my blog, which I’ve called Blog Poetica for the time being. It could change – life’s like that, constantly evolving. I have changed so much in the last ten years it defies expression, but that’s what this blog is about. It might seem like a personal blog, but it’s not; it’s my art [...]