There have always been poets who performed. Blake sang his Songs of Innocence and Experience to parties of friends.

I use the language I use to my friends. They wouldn't believe me if I used some high-flown literary language. I want them to believe me.

I don't like writing essays or theory.

I use rock and jazz and blues rhythms because I love that music. I hope my poetry has a relationship with good-time rock'n roll.

Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.

There have always been poets who performed. Blake sang his Songs of Innocence and Experience to parties of friends.

The maiden Olympics had more to protest about than mere war, though. Central to its ethos was a rejection of two establishments the political one, certainly, but also that of the wider poetry world itself. It changed poetry for ever in the UK, ... It led to readings all over the country. You suddenly got more women reading and publishing poems, as well as gay guys and poets from all over the world. Until that time, published poetry had been very university-based white, male, middle-class. We were trying to break poetry out of its academic confines.