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

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.

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

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.

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 think poetry can help children deal with the other subjects on the curriculum by enabling them to see a subject in a new way.

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.