On the other hand, at some level the mass of unresolved issues in Northern Ireland does influence the fact that there are so many good writers in the place.

We simply have not kept in touch with poetry

Living at that pitch, on that edge, is something which many poets engage in to some extent.

It's not as if I'm trying to write crossword puzzles to which one might find an answer at the back of the book or anything like that.

It seems to me the structure of the Quartets is too imposed.

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.

I do a lot of readings.