Recently I hosted a competition to win £50 of Jamie’s Italian vouchers simply be asking questions about a poem. Not just any poem of course, but one full of the secrets to true and lasting love, written by Luke Wright, following Mike and Alanna’s journey around the UK with MatchAffinity. We have a winner! (Now usually I’d insert a screenshot of the random.org result at this point, but I completely forgot to screenshot it, sorry 🙁 ) Anyway, S. Macrae congratulations! Please get in touch so I know where to send your vouchers.
And on to the questions. I compiled them up from the comments thread and sent them on to Luke to answer.
What made you start writing poetry and when was that? Do you remember the first poem you ever wrote? and what’s the most difficult word you ever had to find a rhyme for?
I was 16 when I started writing poetry seriously. I saw John Cooper Clarke perform at Colchester Arts Centre and it opened my eyes to what poetry could be, and how it could be a form of entertainment, rather than just an academic pursuit.
The first ‘poem’ I ever wrote was when I was 14, and in my head they were lyrics for an unwritten song. It was called ‘Cat & Mouse’ and it was supposed to have a deeper, second meaning, but really it was just about a cat and a mouse.
My favourite rhyme of late was rom-com and Tom-Tom.
Which poet most inspires you or what’s your muse for your poetry? What’s your favourite poem – yours or someone else’s.
My favourite poem is Aubade by Phillip Larkin. I’m inspired by the world around me, what I read in newspapers, rhythms and sounds.
To get your first poem published, did it take very long?
I’ve been trying for ages, I’m doing something wrong!! (Can you offer any advice to beginners on how to improve.)
I really started life as a poet purely for performance. I am just an interested in the page now, but I’ve had poems published various places along the way. The first was probably a college magazine. My first proper publication in a respected journal was in Magma about 2 years ago.
Have you had periods when you didn’t enjoy the act of writing but did it anyway? or What do you do to start yourself off again when thge muse goes on strike and you just can’t write?
Sometimes writing a longer piece gets you down and it can be hard carrying on. It’s normally a good excuse to put it to one side and do something a bit shorter and more fun. I remember reading that George Eliot, when writing Middlemarch got so fed up half way through and penned Silas Marner as a bit of light relief. Imagine.
And finally on writing: Do you think that poetry can sometimes heal family/relationship rifts?
I think poetry can help people understand how they feel about something, so in that way, yes.
On secrets:
What do you think of the saying “Secrets, secrets are no fun; all they do is hurt someone?â€
It’s a bit naff.
Was there a secret that you thought, ‘ I wish I didn’t know that’ (and what was it!)
Not really, it was nice to hear how people have made their relationships work. I didn’t agree with some of them, but each to his own.
How many secrets did you have to work from and how long did it take you, from beginning to end, to complete the poem?
I had a few a4 pages of secrets which had been picked out of the hundreds of secrets Mike and Alanna had collected throughout their journey, I read them through making notes of the ones I liked the ones I thought would best resonate with other people. I then began experimenting with how each one could best be expressed in my chosen metre anapaestic tetrameter because it’s bouncy and accessible and this was a poem for a very wide audience. Then I began trying to work them into a rhyme scheme. I probably work for the best part of a morning and re-drafted in the afternoon.
What is your secret to everlasting love?
Teamwork
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Thanks to everyone who took part, I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the answers to your questions 🙂
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