The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.

That's one of the great things about poetry; one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were.

The ground swell is what’s going to sink you as well as being what buoys you up. These are clichés also, of course, and I’m sometimes interested in how much one can get away with.

Words want to find chimes with each other, things want to connect.

The point of poetry is to be acutely discomforting, to prod and provoke, to poke us in the eye, to punch us in the nose, to knock us off our feet, to take our breath away.

We simply have not kept in touch with poetry

I was born in Northern Ireland in 1951. I lived most of my life there until 1986 or 1987