The Hayward Gallery. The Southbank centre.  3pm. The bike is tied up outside.  The combined mileage of the journey to and from the southbank centre  is eleven miles. 

A small crowd has gathered inside the gallery.   And the tour begins. To carry the concept and the art for the next hour is an impossible task. The concept and the art do it themselves.  I have chosen pieces to talk about and draw the crowd through the exhibition. The tour should have been one hours long but time flies and I am an half hour over time. What I should have done is timings.

Still, it went as well as it should have done. It was a new thing to me, though I can’t help feeling inadequate in that I haven’t got history of art. I read some poems next to the pictures which was fun.

I’m in The Riverside Rooms at the south bank 10am. At 11am I meet Chris from The Poetry Library and Lucy Macnab to discuss The Poetry Book. We decide on poetry library interns for the administration and research and the possibility of launching the thing at Poetry International in November 08.   more »

A day including time at the south bank rather than a record of work only at the south bank. I wake early and walk out onto the balcony overlooking Cardiff Bay. In a couple of hours time I will be on stage reading poems to five hundred people, it’s a contrast to this scene of tranquillity. The car is picking me up at 9am. At bang on 9am I am informed by text that I am actually reading at 1pm. So why did I leave the South Bank and travel from London last night to stay in this hotel. There’s been a cock up I can smell it.   more »

I am not as much as a bull in a china shop as a hippo in pink bootees tip toeing his way over egg shells to the kind of tinkety tinkety music sound in old cartoons. But that's in one reality. In another, the one I live in, there is a dynamic action happening and event is the result. As grace Nichols said to me keep on keeping on. Creat. I leave the south bank to go into the world of literature - Cardiff.   more »

It’s another writers advice day at The Southbank centre. It’s great to get into the office at The Riverside Rooms overlooking the Thames. I meet the first writer in The Hayward Gallery café. First time I had a meeting there. I like the place. It brings a whole new flavour to the south bank and reminds me of The Dry Bar in Manchester and many other Manchester bars. I think it is because all the industrial workings are deliberately exposed. These meetings stretch through the day.   more »

Monday: Arrive at 9am. The entire day is given over to meeting writers and offering advice. The first person to arrive is an American gentlemen in England and a wheelchair and the last person of the day is a black woman from Hackney who is writing a thriller.   more »

Arrive at 10am. Spend an hour answering emails and chatting to Schlomo who is still high from the weekend performance with Martha Wainwright and all. I hear it on his recording and it sounds like it was a treat! Schlomo is good people. At 11am meet with Lucy Macnab of Learning and Participation. We go through some of projects. First for the storytelling chairs. I choose a story which will be recorded next week – 13th – the recording will be placed inside specially commissioned chairs for children to listen to. Storytelling chairs. Magical.   more »