Pathways

In these ‘notebook poems’, John Mole reflects on poetic craft and imagination. In a series of playful sketches, wry prompts, and ironic reminders to himself, we get a unique insight into how he writes and how he achieves his characteristic lightness of touch. As an accomplished jazz clarinetist he finds parallels in the world of music, as well as in dance and painting. For him, improvisation, surprise and accident are all essential in the act of composition, as is the need to trust a poem to find its own way. This is a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how to write a seemingly effortless poem through the fusion of technical discipline and imaginative freedom.

‘John Mole’s needle-sharp feeling for language feeds both his humour and his seriousness. Often he seems to push us gently into understanding that the most serious things may also be the lightest and slightest’.
Helen Dunmore