One month after we opened the final flap on the Advent Calendar, a child was born. Far from the environment of a stable, the operating theatre was brightly lit, clean smelling, and sterilised. Everything had gone just as Science had said it ought to go right up to that moment. Yet when our son emerged, …
Once again, I take a look over the past year and select one post from each month that seems significant. January: Numerology of Grief (The Sixth Year) This brief meditation on six years since the death of our son found its way to a friend-of-a-friend who also lost his son in infancy. To hear how …
The Good Men Project maintains a strong commitment to publishing work and fostering discussion on difficult subjects relating to gender and masculinity. My thoughts have been developing in conversations (real and virtual) following the Newtown shooting about the nature of violence and what we might do to heal. I am grateful to the editors for …
“Toy Soldiers, Real Guns” on The Good Men Project Read More »
I believe that it is important to intelligently question the modern relevance of our ancestors’ words. It is as important to literature as it is to government. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution was enacted on December 15th, 1791, exactly 221 years ago today. I currently live in England–a country with no written constitution. …
Martha Sprackland, editor of Cake, took a critical eye to my collection Human Shade in the latest review for Sabotage. She made deeply insightful observations, the likes of which could only have come from reading closely and thinking carefully about the work. For this, I am honoured. And because this collection is so achingly personal, …
“Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend; / nor even the jobsworth slob / with a slow sly scheme to rob / my darling of her mind / that I imagined; / just a tumour.” -Christopher Reid, “The Unfinished”, from A Scattering Christopher Reid’s A Scattering is a moving tribute to his wife Lucinda, who died of cancer. …
