Stephen Emmerson on how they write a poem
“There have been times when I’ve invested months of effort into a project only to realise that it doesn’t work. That’s just how it goes. If you take risks, you can’t expect things to work out all the time.”
Category: Interviews
Eleanor Rees on how she writes a poem
Immanent living matter swirls through us all constantly, indeed this is what we are.
Sascha A. Akhtar on how she writes a poem
Approach it as art. Paint it. Film it. What is trying to come out of you? Seek the form it requires. You can transform the space as you like. The words will transform you.
Huw Lawrence on how he writes a poem
“However tenuous the relationship between the inspiration and the final poem, that ‘moment’ in which something happened to make you pick up your pen remains your only connection with the obsessive process of writing that followed.” What lies behind a poem is mysterious. A poem’s ‘inspiration’ is often unexpected and sometimes barely reflected in the…
Maria Jastrzȩbska on how she writes a poem
“The best way to write a poem is underwater. The sounds of the world, of other people are muffled. Only their underbellies and limbs ripple through the water.” Geometric lines repeat themselves along the bottom of the pool or if you’re lucky enough to be in a clear sea shy fish suddenly appear from behind…
Hanan Issa on how she writes a poem
“Poetry is the ultimate language ‘glow up’ and it is where I go to try and make sense of the storm” Dragon-taming? I started writing about dragons. Not the friendly creatures that let you ride on their backs. I wrote them as wild monsters with blood-stained teeth and fiery tempers. They definitely ate…
Andrew Spragg on how he writes a poem
“If you are not reading likely you are not writing.” Be wary of others’ methods or manifestos. Any sort of declaration. Two degrees, ten books and less sure than ever. It happens rarely every day. A few things resonate more than others – Tom Raworth’s Earn Your Milk (especially ‘Letters from Yaddo’ and ‘Letter to Martin Stannard’);…
Mike Jenkins on how he writes a poem
“All poems are journeys without a known destination, but none more so than those which derive from an inspirational moment.” There are no rules. No self-help guides and no course which can tell you definitively the way. Each poet must find their own method, or lack of one. For me, different kinds of poems generally…
Rosemarie Corlett on how she writes a poem
“I don’t follow a skeleton, or pad out a structure, rather the poem emerges like a road lit by headlights.” I never know what a poem will be about when I start writing it. And if it’s a successful poem, I won’t know what it’s about once it’s finished. I write line by line, and…