When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.

When you have a child, your previous life seems like someone else's. It's like living in a house and suddenly finding a room you didn't know was there, full of treasure and light.

Poets deal in writing about feelings and trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.

If we think of what's up ahead, with climate change and wars over water, it's very frightening.

Better off dead than giving in; not taking what you want.

If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership, I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn't, I'd ignore it.

I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.