I Always Say That I'll Have A

I Grew Up In A Bookless House - My Parents Didn't Read Poetry, So If I Hadn't Had The Chance To Experience It At School I'd Never Have Experienced It. But I Loved English, And I Was Very Lucky In That I Had Inspirational English Teachers, Miss Scriven And Mr. Walker, And They Liked Us To Learn Poems By Heart, Which I Found I Loved Doing.

The Moment Of Inspiration Can Come From Memory, Or Language, Or The Imagination, Or Experience - Anything That Makes An Impression Forcibly Enough For Language To Form.

When You Have A Child, Your Previous Life Seems Like Someone Else's. It's Like Living In A House And Suddenly Finding A Room You Didn't Know Was There, Full Of Treasure And Light.

I Have Piles Of Poetry Books In The Bathroom, On The Stairs, Everywhere. The Only Way To Write Poetry Is To Read It.

I See The Shape Of The Poem Before I Start Writing, And The Writing Is Just The Process Of Arriving At The Shape.