When I think of poetic inspiration, my first thought is of Spoz and Richard Grant (aka Dreadlockalien). Both (like me) are Brummies and (unlike me) have both been given the year-long title ‘Birmingham Poet Laureate‘. Not only have they both visited my school to inspire the children I teach, but once in the 1990s, my band supported Spoz’s band and even more than that, I once used Dreadlockalien’s poem “I am whatever colour you see” to teach a unit of poetry work to a Year 6 class a few years ago. So I look at those guys and think: “wow, I’d like to be that good.”

More than that, I’m a bit of a word geek. I’m fascinated by rhymes and near rhymes, homophones and synonyms. I suppose being read Dr. Seuss as a child started this and I still enjoy reading his work to my own children now. I think you have to have some sort of fascination with language to write poetry.