This blog  ran from August 2006 until  August 2022.   After 16 years it  has come to a natural end.  I write in a new place called  Entoto Sunrise. My Chancellorship  at the University of  Manchester Read more [...]

This is Xu Bing from China. We have never met.  What he has done with my poem takes it to the next level.   Xu was born in Chongqing, China, in 1955. He earned his B.A. degree from the Read more [...]

We enter bookshops to broaden our minds. May they flourish and may we.  I was fourteen in 1981 when I opened the door of Lamp Bookshop in Leigh. All that was left of its previous incarnation, as a corner-shop Read more [...]

Thank you to Meseret Fikru for being a friend and to Marcos, my God Son.  Thank you to my God Mother Ethiopia Alfred  Thank you to Dave Haslam for being my friend.  Thank you to lebo Mashille for being Read more [...]

Dear Lemn as it's the  week after of your  birthday. This post is to your future self to show what you were doing at the time. For your birthday present you have been asking people to tell you something Read more [...]

Hello.  It’s Eighteen hours since I announced my new site with the following message:  "I invite you to contribute to my new project  “tell me something about family” via a specially created website. Read more [...]

https://youtu.be/_U2x1gyHiQ4 Brighton Festival Launches 2021 Programme with the Theme ‘Care’ • First UK city to launch a multi-arts festival since lockdown • Guest director Lemn Sissay’s Read more [...]

Good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever you are. Today is World  Poetry Day.  The sun is rising in London.  The days are warmer and longer.   In light of the general trend of feeling Read more [...]

I wanted much more from the launch of  "independent review for children's social care' in  England. The dispatch has been duly noted by interested parties such as the multi million pound business The Read more [...]

I’ve shredded and shed-ed. I’ve bagged and boxed. I’ve folded, I’ve filed, and I have filled recycle bags with malignant gangs of documents which have followed me, grunting their disdain, in Read more [...]