Category Archives: PortfolioPrint

Jan – Apr 2025

Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, PortfolioTelevision

A single post for these four months, partly because my right arm has been somewhat out of action for a while so this is a rather rough and ready post . Photo shows Anne McMaster and me with crew on Double Band Films shoot.

I’ve completed a poetry collection with the working title ALL OF US HERE . 59 poems, 80 pages.

For The Irish Times, 29th March, I reviewed Richard Wyn Jones’s,  Putting Wales first: The political thought of Plaid Cymru (Volume 1). University of Wales Press.

Nawr magazine published my Welsh-language poem, ‘Newid’ and an article by me about writing about The End of the World in Ulster-Scots, Welsh and English, https://nawrmag.wordpress.com/blog/

The documentary Out Of The Silence, presented by Anne McMaster was screened on 16th February on BBC One Northern Ireland. I featured in this alongside other female authors from NI. View here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00281kw

The Linen Hall is an historic library in Belfast, which holds the largest collection of Robert Burns material, outside of Scotland in The Gibson Collection : https://linenhall.com/gibson-collection-samantha-mccombe/. Fragments of Scotch Poetry is the second curation of commissioned poems for the Poetry Jukebox and follows The Lexicon; a curation in English, Irish, French and Breton. I’m one of ten contemporary poets commissioned to write a new poem, inspired directly or indirectly by Burns. These new poems will feature on the Poetry Jukebox at the Linen Hall and at least two other venues as well as online. 

I was allocated Burns’s Address To A Haggis as my starting-point. Having read widely in the Gibson collection I was very struck by Burns’s political commitment and by the facility with verse forms which all the poets demonstrate. So I’ve written a poem about Trump and Netanyahu which draws on both these.

Issue 14 of Offline Journal https://www.offline.wales/ which deals with contemporary photography, commissioned Phil Cope to do one of its separately published long-form essays on the subject of photo-poetry. Two poems of mine which are based on family photographs are featured.

I am delivering four sessions for Ballycastle Writers Group on prose and poetry.

Poem in These Pages Sing

Blog, Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint

These Pages Sing describes itself as ‘a quarterly, English-language magazine made in Wales. We aim to highlight unsung Welsh voices to honour our diverse culture and rich history.’ I was very pleased to have a poem in the first edition.

‘Cardiff Docks, 1931’ is about my father’s years in the merchant navy when he worked out of Cardiff for more than a decade before the Second World War.

In 2024 St Fagans National Museum of History, just outside Cardiff, opened its reconstruction of The Vulcan, a pub which had been moved from central Cardiff to this site. Below is a video which gives a virtual tour of this pub which features in my poem.

Star in St Hilda’s College, Oxford news

Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Star

Nice to see ‘Star’ feature in news from my college.

Cover image of Une histoire érotique de l'Angleterre by Grégoire Ming Angela Graham (English, 1975) has published several collections of short stories and poetry in recent years, and her new offering is suitably festive!

STAR: Poems for the Christmas Season is a new poetry collection that illuminate a wide range of human experience – political power struggles; persecution and flight; the vulnerability of the innocent and of the planet – alongside celebration, wonder and friendship. And we hear some Irish, Welsh, Scots and Ulster-Scots, reflecting Angela’s engagement with our indigenous languages.

You can buy STAR right here or find out more about Angela’s work on her website. 
 

STAR launches at No Alibis Bookshop, Belfast

Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Star

A supportive bookshop is a wonderful thing and that is exactly what No Alibis is. David Torrens kindly arranged a launch for ‘Star’ in his welcoming and extremely well-stocked shop on 14th November.

No two launches are the same. No Alibis, on Belfast’s Botanic Avenue is a treasure trove for book lovers, an intimate place wehere you feel the love of books in the atmosphere.

It was a great pleasure to read to an audience of poets and book lovers and editors.

Star launches at Corrymeela

Blog, Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Star

On 4th November ‘STAR’ was launched at Corrymeela, Ballycastle to a wonderfully receptive audience.

Corrymeela, Centre for Reconciliation, is very close to my home in Ballycastle and it was a privilege and a pleasure to hold the launch there. The Centre has done ground-breaking work for decades in bringing communities together and it has develoepd protocols for achieveing reconciliation through hard-earned experience of tackling difficullties in many settings.

It was particularly supportive to have members of Ballycastle Writers Group there and member, Ashley Todd kindly read my poem in Ulster-Scots from ‘Star’: ‘Chrissmas Eve’. She was terrific!

Ashley Todd reads ‘Chrismass Eve’ from ‘Star’

It was very special for me to read to friends from the locality and the staff and members of Corrymeela Community couldn’t have been more helpful.

The Irish Times: ‘Waking Up To Christmas’ 17 Dec ’24

Blog, Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Star

On 17th December 2024 The Irish Times carried an article by me about ‘STAR’ entitled, ‘Waking Up To Christmas‘

I focused on my admiration for the 12th-century scuptor, Gislebertus who not only designed and oversaw the construction of the cathedral of Autun in Burgundy but also carved some of the most beautiful works of art on its facade and in its interior.

I’d long felt that an image of Gislbertus’s carving ‘The Awakening of the Magi’ would be right for the cover of ‘STAR’. (The article contains a photo of the carving). I found a wonderful linocut by Martin Erspamer, which is his take, in that medium, of ‘The Awakening’; the moment before the three astronomer kings see the Christmas star for the very first time.

Continue reading The Irish Times: ‘Waking Up To Christmas’ 17 Dec ’24 →

Consulate General of Ireland sponsor STAR launch & Christmas reading

Blog, Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Star

The Consulate General of Ireland in Wales kindly sponsored the Cardiff launch of ‘STAR: poems for the Christmas Season’.

Llyfrau Caban Books hosted with Phil Cope of Culture And Democracy Press.

On 12th December I read from ‘STAR’ at the Consulate’s Christmas reception in Cardiff. Both Ireland and Wales are very present in ‘STAR’ and I was delighted to share some poems with this particular audience.

With Consul Denise McQuade at the Christmas reception

Poetry in 3 Slimline anthologies from The Broken Spine

Poetry, Portfolio, PortfolioPrint, Writing

High Rise: Brutalist Poetry, a slimline anthology that promises to blend the raw, unfiltered essence of Brutalism with the emotional depth and honesty of art brut. Inspired by the architectural starkness of ‘beton brut’ and the visceral expressiveness championed by notable figures such as Charles Bukowski, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton, this collection seeks to explore the profound realities of the human condition through poetry that is both honest and intricately crafted.

My poem ‘Ending The World’ appears in ‘LAST LIGHT’ anthology.

Last Light: Apocalypse Poetry is a compelling anthology edited by Alan Parry, presented by The Broken Spine. This collection offers a haunting exploration of apocalyptic themes through the eyes of diverse, contemporary poets. The works within navigate the fragility of existence, environmental collapse, and the profound sense of finality that marks the end of worlds, both imagined and real.

With contributions from poets like Angela Graham, Clive Matson, and Amaleena Damlé, each poem acts as a poignant reflection on humanity’s role in its own undoing. The collection deftly balances between the personal and the universal, capturing the myriad ways in which individuals and societies confront the spectre of annihilation. From the visceral imagery of environmental devastation to the intimate despair of personal loss, Last Light invites readers to consider the beauty and terror of endings.

Last Light is a powerful testament to the enduring relevance of apocalyptic literature in our uncertain times.

My poem, ‘CAPITULATION’ appears in ‘Reels’

‘Reels doesn’t ask for your comfort, and it won’t offer any. This anthology gathers poets who write with an edge, crafting texts that land like unflinching film cuts, capturing moments that demand to be seen. Born from a passing conversation on the cinematic art of image-shifting, Reels is for readers ready to feel every word, every line, and every collision of light and shadow.

‘Edited by Alan Parry, Reels invites you into poetry as snapshots of raw, untamed experience. Refusing to look away, these poems confront beauty and brutality with unapologetic honesty. Featuring voices like Georgia Hilton, Sue Finch, Katie Manning, and many more—Reels embodies poetry at its most uncompromising.
Published by The Broken Spine, Reels is for those who understand that art lives on the edge, that real poetry is a lens on the world’s harshest truths. Step into these pages if you’re ready to see what these poets lay bare—but leave comfort at the door. This is poetry with teeth, capturing life’s starkest reels.’

I was interviewed about my short fiction by The Broken Spine https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/11/02/brokenasides-with-angela-graham