What poetry gives you is an opportunity not to show off, or to self-indulge, but to share.

The poets I admire have taught me that none of us is alone: that we are all in the same boat, and that no experience is in vain. If (whether in print or performance) I can impart that sense of oneness to an audience through what little I have learnt, then what I try to do is worthwhile.

As for verse itself? My childhood hero Nigel Molesworth described it as "cissy stuff that rhymes." I still cannot think of a better definition than that.