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.

There comes a time when you have to trust your own judgment, when you must close your eyes and let your instinct rule you.

My earlier poems were sadder than my poems are today, perhaps because I wrote them in confusion or when I was unhappy. But I am not a melancholy person, quite the contrary, no one enjoys laughing more than I do.

I work very hard on all my poems, but most of the work consists of trying not to sound as if I had worked. I try to make them sound as natural as possible, but within a quite strict form, which to my ears has a lot to do with musical rhythm and sound.

Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms.

I am now seventy, rather glad, really, that I won't live to see the horrors to come in the 21st century.

Poets should ignore most criticism and get on with making poetry.