'The journey is not a straight line but a completed circle [...] The real destination is your own front door.'

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

Tonight! I have got to my room in Liverpool where I shall be dialling in from.

Spent the morning deein a recce for my South Shields poetry walk.

Join us in a fortnight!

theworduk.org/whats-on/south…

Incredible film about finding beauty in decay: about injustice, slog and hardship; but mainly about human decency. And more — about the intimacy of art and its power to connect across time and space. Joyous, joyous work 🩶

'From later this year, a stop-off in Durham will also allow a visit to the spectacular pitmans’ parliament at Redhills, built with the contributions of local miners and beautifully restored with the help of national lottery funds'

rb.gy/q3chyq

Interesting that at a time when, globally, pilgrimage is so popular, fewer than 20 people took part in this year's Northern Cross(ing) to Lindisfarne. Related to yesterday's Guardian editorial about dearth of tourism in England's North-East?

The Northern Cross pilgrimage completes its 118-mile walk with the iconic Crossing of the Sands to Holy Island.
If you'd like to know more about the Northern Cross pilgrimage, visit northerncross.co.uk.
#NX2024 bbc.com/news/articles/…

Chuffed to be part of 'In/Out of Place' – the 2024 Newcastle Poetry Festival.

I'll be doing a Tyneside double-header: leading a walk around Shields in April then discussing my poems and process at a Saturday event.

The whole programme looks class!

🤓Newcastle Poetry Festival programme is now live! 📚Our theme ‘In/Out of Place’ has a special focus on local places in the region. Please join us 9-11 May for readings, workshops, panels, commissions & schools events. Tickets go on sale April 4! #NPFP24

newcastlepoetryfestival.co.uk

Niche Tweet but does anyone know the artist who did these depictions of Cuthbert in Chester-le-Street?

Cc Nick

Don't tell Charlotte Gill, but the AHRC paid me to write poems about the North-East of England.

Poems.
About the North-East.

🤯

Our #AWritingChance project – and how the industry supports working-class writers – was the topic of the headline event at The London Book Fair, 11-13 March 2025.
Richard Benson writes on our blog about anger, access, astronauts... and michael sheen 💙's call for revolution.
newwritingnorth.com/journal/all-th…

Looking forward to this.

The first 5 Essays BBC Radio 3 from our 2024 New Generation Thinkers @AHRCpress are available now 🎧and hear about an inspirational teacher 👩‍🏫, green AI 🌍, gas heating , Viking bodies and how we learn to speak 🤭➡️ click through bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00…

Happy St. Cuthbert's Day to the patron saint of the Haliwerfolc.

Wor Cud's shrine, Durham Cathedral.

I've written about following the journey his body & relics were carried on from Lindisfarne, exploring layering of past & present in the NE.

#BetweenTheSaltAndTheAsh

👀 2025

I'm afraid to say a Rubicon has been crossed.

Yesterday, talking to a student, from Liverpool, in Liverpool, they didn't know what I meant by Brookside.

Your favourite ekphrastic poems?