In honour of national poetry day...

...I am going to throw myself out there and choose my favourite poets of the last year. I haven't been writing for all that long, so the authors I have read have all been making a real impact on my learning curve.

1) Carol Ann Duffy - a predictable choice I suppose, but when I saw her read in the summer just after she had become the Laureate I felt really inspired to keep writing, and her poems just came alive as she read them out. She didn't read them with bells on and a huge fanfare, just read them fairly dryly - and this reassured me that it doesn't always have to be a theatre production. She also signed my poetry notebook which I thought was fab. Oh and my first poem was published on her daughter's birthday apparently. Who knew.

2) C K Williams - one stanza of one poem really made an impact on me (see earlier blog post). He was recommended as a poet that uses the long line and reading him made me feel more at home.

3) Paul Farley - he writes about geology. Enough said.

4) Laura Webb - a poet who just popped up for me in the last week or two. I have only read two of her poems (one in The Rialto and the other online from a competition win) but they have made me want to quit writing, as I feel it's unlikely I'll ever write as well! She seems to have acheived what I set out wanting to write just over a year ago. Now my mission is to track her down and find out more.

Carol Ann Duffy @ Grasmere

Yes this is me with my poetry notebook signed by Carol Ann Duffy. I managed to stagger some sycophantic words out to the new poet laureate despite being completely in awe! I told her the usual about thinking her poems are wonderful and how she reads so well, then I asked her for advice as I have my first reading coming up. She said, and I quote;

"Just focus on the words"

I was hoping for some secret Duffy magic but this was her gem, and treasure it I will. I then told her that my first three poems are being published on June 17th and she told me what an auspicious date that is as it's her daughter's birthday. I left notebook in hand, having a hot flush and totally blown away.

She read so beautifully and with so much humour. The first half of the evening was given over to poems from The World's Wife and a new poem about girls giggling at school, parts of which interspersed the longer poems. She then had a break and after returned to read from Rapture as well as new poems about her Mother and daughter, and finished the first part of the giggling girls poem. There is apparently a lot more to follow. I was amazed at how she paced every poem just right as she read, she had the comedy timing of a practiced comedian yet her love poems made me want to cry. Wonderful. She really brought the poems to life and hearing them out loud helped me better recognise her amazing use of language. What I liked about Rapture was the wonderful metaphors and the narrative through the book. The ebb and flow of a love affair. I connected with it immediately and found the meanings easy to grasp. But hearing the other poems I was more enchanted by the variety of words and subtle rhymes that really come through when she reads.

There was also another bonus to the evening. When I arrived I only required one seat so was ushered to the front row. Not only was this a perfect vantage point but I also met two women from Cumbria who took a very keen interest in my writing progress and invited me to their writing group in Ulverston, gave me their email addresses and promised to look out for Flax. They then introduced me to the lady behind. Jenny Copley who will also be in Flax 018. Outside we giggled about being tongue tied and having nothing novel to say. It was very silly, but a brilliantly fortuitous meeting on an unforgettable evening and six quid for two new friends and the wisdom of the laureate is not a bad deal at all!

Pleased to hear the CAD is now poet laureate. I hope she gets all her sherry on time. A nice idea too to give the attached 'salary' to the poetry society as an annual prize.

I have been brewing over an idea to post what I would call phone poetry. I'm frequently caught short without notebook and end up tapping ideas into my phone when out and about. And actually, i think it's quite an interesting way of recording ideas. You have that choice; save to drafts or send to someone. Obviously, I never send them to anyone and even if they were fully formed I wouldn't. but it's an idea! A mass-dissemination device. It's also interesting the way when you hurriedly type in the ideas, predictive text will come up with it's own interpretation and the word you wanted will get replaced if you're not concentrating. Sometimes this works! Sometimes Mr Nokia has a better word than me. Sometimes it's just humorous to see the meaning change. Maybe CAD should use it as a way to get young people back into poetry. Humorous excerpts? OK, so it's a rough idea but it's not altogether awful...it could catch on. I wonder if she tweets...

I may post one. Get it out there. Anyway, you heard it here first.