Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.

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.

Between 9am and 3pm is when I work most intensely

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.

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

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.

Like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant. In each poem, I'm trying to reveal a truth, so it can't have a fictional beginning.