The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text. It's a perfecting of a feeling in language - it's a way of saying more with less, just as texting is.
You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what's in your heart.
The poem is the literary form of the 21st century. It's able to connect young people in a deep way to language... it's language as play.
I grew up in a bookless house - my parents didn't read poetry, so if I hadn't had the chance to experience it at school I'd never have experienced it. But I loved English, and I was very lucky in that I had inspirational English teachers, Miss Scriven and Mr. Walker, and they liked us to learn poems by heart, which I found I loved doing.
I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.
