• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Friday Poem

The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

  • About
    • Masthead
    • Contributors
  • Archive
    • Search the archive
    • Friday Poems
    • Reviews
    • Features
  • Subscribe

What does Mat Riches say?

I got into poetry by accident. I remember writing some sort of rhyming thing around the age of five. It was based on a song called ‘Bobby Bingo’. I wrote it in pink felt tip in my gran’s outhouse while sitting on felt tiles. After that I was in. At secondary school we read Ted Hughes’ ‘Pike’ and the War poets, and I fell for the Liverpool Poets after I found a copy of ‘The Mersey Sound’ in Mr Phillips’ English class.

If I have to choose a favourite line I’ll take “I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time”, from Wichita Lineman by Jimmy Webb. It’s not officially a line of poetry, but I wish I’d written it.

I’ve been reviewing for about four years. I started reviewing for Sphinx as a way to broaden my horizons, get to grips with my own work, and to get better. Reviewing felt like a good way to engage with work more than just reading. I still do it for those reasons.  And the books, especially for the books.

When reviewing I want to keep hold of the fact that someone has taken their time to write this. The OPOI guidelines are ingrained in me to find something positive. I always look for that. Beyond that, it’s a case of remembering the author and the ‘I’ on the page aren’t always the same

I find Twitter a hard habit to kick. At present stroking our new kittens is also pretty irresistible.

Share on X (Twitter) Share on Facebook Share on Email
31/05/2022

Read this next

What does Steven Lovatt say?

What does Steven Lovatt say?

What does Steven Lovatt say about poetry and reviewing?

Site Footer

If you like what you see and want to help us continue in our quest to brighten the online poetry landscape, you can donate a few quid to The Friday Poem.
Oh look – here’s a button that will take you straight to our donation page on Ko-Fi !

.

  • About us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Mentions Légales

Copyright © 2025 · The Friday Poem · All Rights Reserved · follow the Friday Poem on Twitter · follow the Friday Poem on Facebook · ISSN  2968-7675 follow the Friday Poem follow the Friday Poem on

Websites need cookies, it's quite the thing nowadays. We use as few as possible. Okay