Prayer for Uninteresting Times Send me a slow news day,a quiet, subdued day,in which nothing much happens of note,save for the passing of time,the consumption of wine,and a re-run of Murder, She Wrote. Grant me a no news day,a spare-me-your-views day,in which nothing much happens at all,except a few hours togethersome regional weather,a day we can…
Poem
My Unbearable Politeness of Being It’s the same dilemmaevery year, I find,upon meeting a personfor the first time, for how longdoes wishing thema Happy New Yearremain de rigueur? Perhaps I blow thingsout of proportionbut I tend to erron the side of caution so I’ve alwaysHappy New Year-eduntil October the Third.
This was the year that was not the year This was the year that was not the year I repaired the bathroom tap and emptied out the kitchen drawer of a lifetime’s worth of crap. This was the year that was not the yearin which I launched a new career. A West End hit eluded me as did Time Person…
Resolution Having failed to keepA new year’s resolution forPretty much ever, this year I resolve toPlay it safe. The trick is to knowYour limits. Keep it simple. Now what I resolve to do is toEschew a poetic form. Abstain fromWriting an acrostic for a whole Year. A resolution, I think,Easily done. Eminently achievable.A piece of…
I’m heading off on tour next year with a brand new solo show, in which I’ll be reading poems from my forthcoming book ‘How to Lay an Egg with a Horse Inside’. The tour starts in September. Tickets have gone on sale at most venues today. You can find out more here: https://brianbilston.com/events/ I’ll be…
It’s UK publication day for ‘A Poem for Every Question’, my new collection of poems for children, illustrated by the brilliant Joe Berger. Inside there are poems to answer all sorts of interesting questions: how many stars in the universe exploded today?; who had the first holiday?; how many times a day do we laugh?;…