If you’ve ever felt like you’d like to read more poetry but weren’t sure where to start, or even fancied penning a few lines yourself, here’s advice on how to begin from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage
Despite it possibly being more accessible than many other forms of writing, being short and easy to dip in and out of, it seems that many of us don’t read much poetry beyond school. Where’s a good place for a poetry newbie to begin?
“There are some really good anthologies, which are kind of portfolio collections that have lots of different poets writing in lots of different styles. I would probably start with one of those.
“There’s a very good anthology edited by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney called The Rattle Bag.
“Bloodaxe have published a really great series of anthologies known as Staying Alive that’s also really good [The collections are edited by Neil Astley and include Staying Alive, Being Alive, Being Human and Staying Human].
“I also like the anthology Andrew Motion edited when he was Poet Laureate called Here to Eternity.
“So I’d try any one of them. Anthologies are like samplers really. You get a little bit of everything. If you find something you like, you might be inclined to follow up that point with more of that poet’s work. But I’d also say don't feel bad if you don't get on with a poem. Remember, it might well be the poem’s fault rather than yours.”
How would you encourage someone who has never done so to begin to write poetry themselves?
“I'd encourage them to, to collect words around the subjects they’re interested in first. So make yourself an inventory of words that you can use. Because when you’re writing poetry, there is always a better word; there’s always a word that will do a bit more work or have a better sound, if you can find it.
“Sometimes people come to me and say, ‘I want to write poems, because I've got something to say’. And I always think ‘Oh, no, that's no good’. You know, we've all got something to say. Even if it's just ‘I took the bin out today’. The point is, if you want to be a writer, it's because you want to work with language. You can have something to say as a painter. You can have something to say as a potter, and you can have something to say as a racing car driver, but you've really got to be interested in language to be a poet.”
You can read more of Simon Armitage’s thoughts in our Wisdom feature in our May issue. Simon’s latest anthology, Blossomise, illustrated by Angela Harding, is available now, too.
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