The sea is as near as we come to another world.

I have always made my own rules, in poetry as in life - though I have tried of late to cooperate more with my family. I do, however, believe that without order or pattern poetry is useless.

Yes, I do often write poems from the mind, but I hope I don't ignore feelings and emotions.

Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.

Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet.

I married a young Englishman in Cambridge in 1955 and have lived in Britain every since.