If you really want people to pay attention to how you feel, you need to express your feelings in language that's worth reading.

I would put forward a modest proposition that we were very much better governed by Henry VIII than we are by King Gordon.

I think I give far more space and play to avant-garde writing than any other contemporary textbook author. I want students to be able to decide for themselves which aesthetics are closest to their own. Still, while I try not to be a nostalgist myself, I suppose I am drawn to those poignant moments in our lives, rendered clearly and artfully.

My biggest poetic influences are probably 20th-century British and Irish poets. So I suppose I'm always listening for the music I associate with that poetry, the telling images, the brevity. I want to hear it in my own work as well as in the poetry I read. However, I think I'm generally more forgiving of other poets than myself.

Once a piece of writing gets to a moment where it's not going to get much better than it already is, marinate it. If you still like the piece, send it out and see what others think. If not, it's time to put it away and forget about it for a while.

If you really want people to pay attention to how you feel, you need to express your feelings in language that's worth reading.

I do think poetry needs to invite the reader, especially when there are so many other distractions while reading.