Poetry Shelf is aiming to be back online on Friday but only if the current jagged spike smooths and the road ahead settles.

I thought I’d share some photos of some of the books I have got sent to review and some of the books I have been buying lately. Looking forward to reading them all! My desk is a like a range of book mountains.

And my mind is like a mysterious enclave of rooms where ideas and images and feelings simmer and sizzle but can’t quite reach the page or screen yet – and when I attempt to write about your glorious poetry I create nonsense puddles on the screen.

So time to recharge with nourishing soups and juices. My highlight of the week was seeing the incredulous look on the face of Zoe Hobbs when she won the 100 metres in the outside lane at the Commonwealth Games. And that is what we can do. Against all odds. In the outside lane or the middle lane or the invented lane, we can get poetry simmering and sizzling and skateboarding. Drifitng and dancing and dillydallying. Going shallow and going deep.

Please note my new public postal address (but do use private one if you have it): PO Box 58, Waitākere 0660