I think poetry can help children deal with the other subjects on the curriculum by enabling them to see a subject in a new way.
Category Archive: Carol Ann Duffy
It’s always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal.
I still have a feeling that I haven’t written the best that I can write. I think all poets must feel this: that there is constantly something new to be discovered in the language. It’s like a thrilling encounter, and you can find things.
I have piles of poetry books in the bathroom, on the stairs, everywhere. The only way to write poetry is to read it.
Having a child takes you back to all those parts of your own childhood that you had hidden away.
Auden said poetry makes nothing happen. But I wonder if the opposite could be true. It could make something happen.
I write quite a lot of sonnets, and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite.
I think the dangers are different now. Our abuse of the planet and our resources is an anxiety.
If I felt, in the event of a royal wedding, inspired to write about people coming together in marriage or civil partnership, I would just be grateful to have an idea for the poem. And if I didn’t, I’d ignore it.
Edinburgh is my favourite city. We’ll be doing a lot of children’s theatre and galleries.