I’ve been asked to help launch a small book of poetry, written by children in hospital, in September. Reading the book got my interest. It is laid out in sections that describe different types of poem. For someone who hasn’t read a poem since school, it’s a gentle introduction to poetry as well as an interesting conduit into the minds of bored, frightened, confused and surprisingly resilient children and teenagers who have been thrown into a situation we’d all rather not think about.

I Have a couple on moths to prepare. I never leave this sort of thing to the last minute. I like to leave it simmering on the back boiler. Every now and then, like an unwatched cooking pot, ideas boil over and the pot needs attending too.

Like this morning. Tidying up my desk, I came across the book and innocently wondered what was the last time I wrote a poem. All I could remember was my poem lashing out during the 2001 Foot and mouth crisis. At the time, I felt locked in, surrounded by inaccessible woods, while the smell of burning sheep filled the air for weeks. Never mind the rage I felt at the inept government handling of something that need never have happened.

I think I got really quite depressed over that episode and the writing of the poem was when I managed to move on personally and get back to real life. That was probably the last serious poem I wrote. My sketchbooks, going back to when I was 13 or so, are crammed with serious poems. Mostly about thwarted or unrequited love. I’m not sure whether the helped at the time or prolonged the agony – which is probably what I was trying to do. There is nothing quite as perverse as a teenage, hormone-addled mind!

I scanned my computer files to see if I could come up with anything more recent. Ah ha! I spent a whole day writing poems about shoes in February 2007! And they are quite fun. I’d almost forgotten them. They make me want to look at that idea I had a gain and see if it has legs (that I can put shoes on) – sorry!

That’s a different kind of poetry. More intellectual, I suppose. Like a crossword puzzle or soduku, trying to get the words to fit in order and yet still make sense or maybe say something profound or better still, to try and make the reader laugh.