“I think writing poems has become a kind of counterweight for me, a joyful and organic writing experience that just happens sometimes”
Author: Zoë Brigely
Editor of Poetry Wales
Zoë Brigley is an award-winning poet, editor and academic. As well as editing Poetry Wales, she shares the role of Poetry Editor for Seren Books with Rhian Edwards, and is an Assistant Professor in English at Ohio State University.
Frank Dullaghan: How I Wrote ‘In the Waiting Room’
“I will hold onto a poem, working and re-working it, until I get the ending right.”
Jamie Woods: How I Wrote ’86K SUPERHIGHWAY’
“Poetry doesn’t only have to exist as words on a page in a standard house font. We read them out loud, we listen to others, we watch them be performed… This poem is about noisy overlapping messages, it’s about everything being too much”
Ciarán O’Rourke: How I Wrote ‘Blackthorn’
“When I’m writing, I tend to hold closely to the rhythm of the poem as it’s unfolding, line by line and breath by breath.”
Oisín Breen: How I Wrote ‘Even Small Birds Can Render Planets unto Ash’
“I’d definitely consider writing poetry to be more a sculptor at the rock-face, at least at times, with a dash of the composer listening for the motifs, the rises and falls, and the music”
Fred Johnston: How I Wrote ‘Interview’
“For me, a poem must have a certain lyric sense, not in a fascistic way, but the song must be somewhere within it”
Taylor Strickland: How I Wrote ‘Coille Challtainn’
“If I have an economy of language, it’s the result of twelve years of sleeves-rolled up, punishing labour… when I was younger, the poetry wrote itself. Now I’m lucky if I can write a poem at all!”
Guinevere Clark: How I Wrote ‘St Non’
“My work has an absorption in the baby or child, reaching into their sensual, physical and emotional world through imagery, speech and metaphor”
Penelope Shuttle: How I Wrote ‘More’
“[As] poets we track and witness what is happening all around the world as pollution and extinction becomes not a prediction for the future, but the very place we live in”