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

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.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

My prose is turgid, it just hasn't got any energy

You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.

Time hates love, wants love poor,/but love spins gold, gold, gold from straw.

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.