Finish the day's writing when you still want to continue.

Poets go through a very tough apprenticeship in the use of words.

However, I began to submit poems to British magazines, and some were accepted. It was a great moment to see my first poems published. It felt like entering a tradition.

I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves - and then, maybe, read them again and find new things there.

As individuals, we are shaped by story from the time of birth; we are formed by what we are told by our parents, our teachers, our intimates.

Reread, rewrite, reread, rewrite. If it still doesn't work, throw it away. It's a nice feeling, and you don't want to be cluttered with the corpses of poems and stories which have everything in them except the life they need.

My first collection of poems was published by Bloodaxe Books, which was then a very new imprint.