In October Ms Nauta and I attended a presentation at County Hall, Chester, by the current Cheshire Poet Laureate, Jo Bell. (Also see Ledbury 2006 – You’re being watched…) She informed prospective candidates and others what the post entailed. At question time I asked of Ms.
Continue readingGarden Craftsman
Since 1975 Michael Gibson has been a designer, maker, keeper and improver of gardens. He qualified as a gardener in 1978. For 15 years Michael was a smallholder and farmer keeping fowl, goats, sheep, horses and bees. His outlook is ‘organic’.
Continue readingOn Medieval Metrics
On this page of the website there will be papers and pieces dealing with the ways that matters of prosody, measure and rhythm in medieval poetry have been dealt with. It seems to me that this is a very muddled and muddied field.
Continue readingGawain Matters
It is almost fifty years ago that I first gained some acquaintance with the wonderful 14th century poem called ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’. Since that time I have grown to love and respect its wonderful wit and craftsmanship more deeply.
Continue readingPoems
A selection of poems by Michael George Gibson.
Continue readingReviews
In April 2006 the First Caedmon Literary Festival was held in Whitby. Michael made his keynote appearance on Sunday 23rd April. On the 18th January 2006 Michael performed ‘Chewing on a Straw’ at the Village Hall in Sutton Waldron, Dorset. On Tuesday the 18th January, at the Village Hall, people gathered from near and far to enjoy an evening of rustic stories, poetry and music.
Continue readingWhy did the Chair of The Poetry Society cheat?
It was in 2004 that I took a more active interest in The Poetry Society of which I had been a member for some years. It had long seemed to me that most of the new pieces that were published as ‘poetry’ in the Society’s quarterly Newsletter and in its magazine Poetry Review were not truly poetry at all.
Continue readingHow mad was Ted Hughes?
I ask the question because I found the process of learning a poem of his for the purpose of recitation somewhat maddening. I am used to memorising poetry. the better to perform it; and sometimes I can master a poem in a day, but it took me months to memorise ‘The Hawk in the Rain’, the title poem of Ted Hughes’
Continue readingArchive
Archived news and other resources from michaelgeorgegibson.org
Continue readingSuch “False and Unruly Stuff”
or "babble and balderdash"
Ruth Padel has been ‘Chair’ of The Poetry Society, and is an authoress of note. I present here an analysis of some of her recent writing about English poetry. *** Ms Padel published a book in 2002 called 52 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A POEM.
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