Poems Are A Hotline To

I Deeply Adored My Mum. She Was An Extraordinary Person, Even For The Prejudice I'm Likely To Have. She Was Beautiful, Amusing, A Tremendous Elaborator Of Things Into Comic Proportions And Extravagant In Her Imagination.

But I Can't And Don't Ever Want To Write Bell-yanking Confetti-tossing Hat-throwing Poems.

While Also, Importantly, Not Wanting To Dumb It Down Or Pretend The Days Of 'difficult' Poetry Are Over, Because We Live In A Pluralist Culture And There's Room For 'difficult' Poetry Alongside Rap And Everything Else. And Poetry Won't Be For Everyone, But Everyone Should Have The Choice.

I Get Up At 5.30am, Sluice Myself And Have Two Weetabix And Some Mint Tea, Before Starting To Write By 6am.

I Write Between 5.30am And 9.00. That Way, I Hope I Carry Over Something From My Dream Time.