I live in Reading, Berkshire and write and perform mainly for children these days. I spent many years active in poetry slams and comedy and cabaret, as well as running a poetry open mic for over a decade, and published half a dozen adult collections, before becoming more focused on writing for younger people.
Was your creativity affected in anyway during the lockdown? Did being lockdown make you feel inspired or deflated?
Lockdown stopped me from one of my main jobs, which is visiting schools, as well as lost literary festivals and teacher conferences… basically all live work. However, when I’m not doing those things I’m just sat in shed at the end of the garden looking at Twitter/writing, so to that end lockdown was exactly the same.
Was it therapeutic doing creative work during lockdown? It’s always nice to do something, even nicer to have done it.
How did you occupy your time?
The garden has gone through its changes under my gaze – from bare branches to blossom to leaves to fruit… the squirrels grow bolder and bolder, the cats grow more and more frustrated.
What inspires most of your poems,
Stuff.
Do you have any favourite poems, from all the poems you have written?
It’s not my place to pick winners and losers.
Do you remember the first poem you ever wrote or one of the first? Dreadful teenage swirling blackness of night soul wings crushing tempestuously-type stuff.
Do you ever think of poems before going to sleep or just after waking up?
Not generally.
Do you hand write poems or go directly on to your computer?
Straight to the keyboard, usually. Maybe a jotting in a notebook out walking, but that’s grown rarer and rarer as the years have gone on.
Do you ever give up on poems you have started? Absolutely.
Do you do any other creative activities? I write books and I perform and I make music and I look out the window and I read.
Do you only focus on poetry or do you also write prose? I write novels for young readers.
Do you poems ever have strong messages? Again, that’s not for me to say. I wouldn’t claim such a thing, but it’s a reader’s prerogative to find the messages they find.
How would you describe the tone of your poems? Varied.
f you had to write a poem about yourself, how would it start?