‘Poetry is the music of being human’
As she releases an anthology of her beloved Christmas poems, former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy tells Ella Dove why the festive season will always hold a special place in her heart
Every year for 10 years, you have written a Christmas poem – which now form your new Christmas Poems collection. Why does poetry feel so synonymous with the festive season for you? Poetry is part of the tradition of Christmas. We actually sing poems at this time of year – think about Christina Rossetti’s poem In The Bleak Midwinter. Christmas has always felt magical for me, because I was born at five to midnight on 23rd December, in an old castle in Lennoxtown that had been turned into a maternity hospital. My mum told me how the nurses held lanterns and sang carols as they brought the babies back to their mothers after washing them – so perhaps I’ve always remembered that link between Christmas, poetry and music. I’ve brought it all together this Christmas by writing lyrics for a Christmas album, Midnight Chorus (One Little Independent Records), with Kathryn Williams.
When did you first fall in love with poetry? Nursery rhymes. As a child, I remember rhymes becoming like pictures in the mind; the cow jumping over the moon and the dish running away with the spoon. I had four younger brothers and the house was very boyish, so I started reading to carve a little bit of space for myself. That led to imitating what I read in my writing. I’ve always loved the musicality of poems and how they could say so much in so little.
What is it about the medium of poetry that continues to inspire you? I’ve worked on that answer for years, and I think that it’s the music of being human. It’s also a way of thinking about the world and oneself, of looking very closely and then perhaps trying to find words that balance the looking. For example, I’m talking to you in my garden now, where everything I’m looking at is pre-language. If I look hard enough, I can perhaps find some words that might capture it. That process of finding the words is poetry. So it’s quite mysterious, and I love that.
What is your biggest career highlight? When I was poet laureate, we did an event in 2016 and again in 2018 called Shore To Shore, and I went on the road with Gillian Clarke, who was the Welsh poet laureate, Jackie Kay, former Scottish poet laureate, and poet Imtiaz Dharker. We performed in independent bookshops across the UK alongside a local poet from each place. My love of poetry came through good teachers, good libraries and good local bookshops, so it was a huge highlight for me to be able to celebrate local bookshops on this tour.
‘I’M LUCKY I CAN WRITE ANYWHERE’
How important is it to you to inspire the next generation of poets? It’s a huge part of my work. I’m creative director of the writing school at Manchester Metropolitan University, so I teach the MA course, and I work every year with Poetry Live!, a community of poets that performs to and teaches GCSE students. In fact, the book I’m probably most proud of is my New And Collected Poems For Children.
What does your writing process look like? I always have a notebook with me. I write in longhand, and I’m lucky I can write anywhere. I’m a lot slower than when I was young and would rush it out – now, I might take a month to write one poem. I do half a dozen drafts, building the poem up slowly, finding the form and looking at how the words relate to each other. I actively look at the verbs, because they can be like a battery in a torch; they can illuminate the poem.