Most poets reserve their work for slim volumes and literary journals, but you thrive on the daily cadence of social media, blending tight rhymes with unpredictable themes to keep your audience constantly guessing. Welcome, Richard, and thank you for taking the time to sit down with us today.
On The Blog
Question: Your ‘retired’ long-running blog, Bard at Bay, approached one thousand entries in nine and a half years. Looking back, how did keeping that regular public journal shape your day-to-day writing habits and the connection with your readers?
Richard:
When Bard at Bay was ongoing, I was averaging a couple of blog posts per week, a far slower work rate than my present daily Facebook posts. What both the blog output and Facebook’s daily posts have in common is the discipline of working to a deadline, and I quickly discovered that, not only do I enjoy that challenge, but I tend to produce my best efforts when working in that way. Despite having a couple of ‘slim volumes’ on my CV, I see my future output as almost exclusively online.
On Form vs. Free Verse
Q: Earlier this year, your featured showcase in The High Window highlighted a remarkable range in your work, from structured sonnets to loose, reflective pieces. When a new spark or idea arrives, how do you know whether it wants a formal meter or a freer form?
Richard:
Like many aspiring poets, I started out writing what I’d describe as poetic prose and recognise, in retrospect, that this choice was influenced by what was then a common belief: that formal, rhyming poetry was not contemporary and was, in fact, a bit old-fashioned. When I began posting a poem a day on Facebook, I decided to opt for rhyme because most of my output at that time was humorous, and rhyme seemed to be the perfect vehicle. Rather to my surprise, I found that I enjoyed structure and rhyming verse enormously. Nowadays, I tend to write in that mode irrespective of the subject matter.
On Humour & Poignancy
Q: Both humour and wit play a significant role in your work alongside poignant meditations on memory and ageing. Do you consciously try to balance the lighthearted stuff with the more poignant pieces or does that it just happen naturally?
Richard:
Whilst I don’t set out to balance the number of humorous rhymes with the more serious and reflective verse, my daily writing and subsequent posting simply reflect my mood at the time. I have a fondness for absurd verse and, try as I may, can never quite keep it at bay. My readership, via Facebook, is hugely diverse, and I like to keep my followers guessing at what I’ll come up with next.
On Poetry vs. Prose
Q: Having written for print, radio and short stories, what do you think a poem can pull off emotionally that prose just can’t touch?
Richard:
I think certain poems have a ritualistic element to them that we respond to in a way that we may not fully understand. These ‘nuministic’ poems tend to be read on significant occasions such as weddings, funerals and baptisms. This rarely happens with prose.
On Who Reads Poetry?
Q: To wrap up with a slightly cheeky one: in such a tumultuous twenty-first century, who is actually still reading poetry?
Richard:
I believe that poetry is not just being read by other poets, although they probably make up the majority of readers. There’s little doubt that reading generally is on the increase, although the medium of choice may not be only physical books. This being so, it seems to me that the enjoyment of poetry must be increasing simply because of ease of access. The internet has hugely broadened the poet’s reach and made their work more accessible. A reader no longer has to acquire a book or a literary magazine to be able to access verse: nowadays, it’s available with one keyboard click.
Bard at Bay, the ‘retired’ blog, a precious archive of good poetry: https://redhandwriter.blogspot.com/
Richard, featured in The High Window, a respected, niche online and quarterly poetry review of poetry: https://thehighwindowpress.com/2026/01/30/featured-poet-richard-fleming/
Richard’s books so far: https://amoz.onl/7a5
