In the nightmarish world of coronavirus, it’s been hard to post anything, and hard to write anything other than the very short poem or story that can be completed in a few hours. The current pandemic crisis means I don’t currently have the confidence to embark on a longer story or novel. Hopefully, I will when we all emerge. Two friends have died recently which is affecting me. Yesterday, a poetry friend read aloud to me the poem ‘Sometimes’. I very much like its optimism. It is a popular poem and I can see why. But it does have a dated feel partly to do with the use of ‘man’ as inclusive of man and woman. I read that the poet who wrote it doesn’t now want to be associated with it, partly I guess because she thinks it’s been overused. Sheenagh Pugh has written many better poems and would, I imagine, rather people focused on these. Her website and blog are well worth visiting for poetry, reviews, politics and life.
Some of my poems have been published recently by Greenteeth Press and Marble Poetry magazine and I am trying to support these and other independent presses, for example, the interesting and lively Hedgehog Press
Sarah Barr 