For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry

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.

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

Obviously one of the things that poets from Northern Ireland and beyond - had to try to make sense of was what was happening on a day-to-day political level.

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

Form is a straitjacket in the way that a straitjacket was a straitjacket for Houdini.

Of course, you can't legislate for how people are going to read.