Oh Let Us Not Be

Nobody Really Knows Whether They Are A Poet. I Knew I Was Interested From The Age Of 15.

The Voice Is Raised, And That Is Where Poetry Begins. And Even Today, In The Prolonged Aftermath Of Modernism, In Places Where "open Form" Or Free Verse Is The Orthodoxy, You Will Find A Memory Of That Raising Of The Voice In The Term "heightened Speech".

A Cabaret Song Has Got To Be Written - For The Middle Voice, Ideally - Because You've Got To Hear The Wit Of The Words. And A Cabaret Song Gives The Singer Room To Act, More Even Than An Opera Singer.

A Really Interesting And Happy Time Was When I First Went To Florence As A Student And Studied Italian. I Was Living In A Pensione On An Allowance Of £40 A Month, Which Was Princely. I Did A Lot Of Work And Enjoyed Myself Immensely.

The Writing Of A Poem Is Like A Child Throwing Stones Into A Mineshaft. You Compose First, Then You Listen For The Reverberation.