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I really think there are spirits in a place that you have to accommodate.
I try not to invent; I try simply to translate the weird language of the natural world. And I'm not into absolute ownership of things.
It's a question of trying to take down by dictation what's already there. I'm not making something, I'm trying to hear it.
There's a whole range of words that people use about landscape. Pastoral? Idyll? I can't stand them.
When I was 16, I was taught by a wonderful teacher who let me ignore the Greek syllabus and just read Homer.
At eight, I made a commitment to poetry. Until then, I thought I'd be a policeman. But I went a whole night without sleeping, and the next day... →
I hate not managing to speak clearly. I really hate it. I get a feeling of claustrophobia - like I'm locked in my own head - if what I've... →
I think it's often assumed that the role of poetry is to comfort, but for me, poetry is the great unsettler. It questions the established order... →
It's the stickiness of earth that makes it problematic - the way it stains your straps and ingrains your hands so you can't quite tell where... →
People are so used to reading novels now, they just read a poem straight through to get the meaning. And that's something totally different from... →
That is the best instruction you could ever give a poet: whether you're examining a bad line in a poem or a bad motive for action, keep well your... →
To be a poet is as serious, long-term and natural as the effort to be the best human you can be. To express something well is not a question of... →
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