It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal

I see the shape of the poem before I start writing, and the writing is just the process of arriving at the shape.

For me, poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we are and to who we will become.

I think the dangers are different now. Our abuse of the planet and our resources is an anxiety.

Where I lived - winter and hard earth.I sat in my cold stone roomchoosing tough words, granite, flint,to break the ice. My broken heart -I tried that, but it skimmed,flat, over the frozen lake.She came from a long, long way,but I saw her at last, walking,my daughter, my girl, across the fields,In bare feet, bringing all spring's flowersto her mother's house. I swearthe air softened and warmed as she moved,the blue sky smiling, none too soon,with the small shy mouth of a new moon.

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.

You have me like a drawing, erased, coloured in, untitled, signed by your tongue.