Anne Stevenson

A poem might be defined as thinking about feelings - about human feelings and frailties. ”

I write, or used to write, to explain to myself situations I couldn't otherwise solve or understand. Meditation comes very naturally to me. ”

Many varieties of sonnet, of course, have been written over the ages. ”

Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet. ”

I work very hard on all my poems, but most of the work consists of trying not to sound as if I had worked. I try to make them sound as natural as possible, but within a quite strict form, which to my ears has a lot to do with musical rhythm and sound. ”

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas. ”