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.

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.

I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.

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

She stood upon a continent of ice, which sparkled between sea and sky, endless and dazzling, as though the world kept all its treasure there; a scale which balanced poetry and prayer.

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

Every day is a gift with a child, no matter what problems you have.