How does any poet start writing a poem?
I was surprised when I heard a well-published poet say he writes a line at a time, always finishing one before moving onto the next. Surprised because it is so counter to my own way of writing, and I began…
Poems that come free with a tube ticket
When you commute to work or make your way home, it is always such pleasure to spot and read, in your part of the train carriage, poems that crop up unexpectedly in the Underground. This year being the 150th anniversary…
The hidden life of poets
Poetry: at first it’s all around us, in nursery rhymes, ‘children’s poems’, at primary school, even in some form on children’s television. We learn to speak in rhyme, which is patterned language, and it makes up our earliest games. It’s…
Occasional Verse: Christmas Poems
Sometimes people ask of a particular poem: Did it have to be written? Is this a necessary poem? They are wondering if there was sufficient pressure for the poem to become meaningful in the assumption that validity is based on…
Words from competition judge Gillian Clarke
The post will soon bring me a fat package of poems, long promised, the programme of reading and judging them marked in my diary in advance. Every poem will carry its author’s hope of success, every page a glimpse of…
Poetry and the Joys of Syntax
One evening, the bell rang Softly around the port. Is that poetry? If it is (highly debatable!), it has little poetic quality. It reads like prose cut up into lines. Somehow, it has a prose rhythm, and there’s little attention…
On Cynicism
I’d like to say a few words about a subject I don’t often see explored in writing on contemporary poetry, in the hope that perhaps some of the sentiments expressed will chime with others. This year I was lucky enough…
After a hundred years, does Imagism still matter?
Last month was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Imagism. In September 1912 Ezra Pound was in the British Museum tearoom with Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), a girlfriend from his University of Pennsylvania days, and her English fiancé, Richard Aldington. …
Hummingbirds, ghazals and pistachio nuts
In January 2012 I was notified that I had won the Judge’s Prize in the Magma competition 2011 judged by George Szirtes. The winning poem was “Hummingbird”. It was the first major competition I had won and, being a relative…
The importance of place
Where do you write your poems? We’re fascinated by the places where poetry happens, the idea that inspiration might not just be a moment-in-time but in a moment-in-place. The Guardian’s regular feature on is popular for just that reason: there’s…
Supported by Arts Council England