Chasing Philip Larkin
Lockdown-style, I have recently been doing an online poetry course with Billy Collins (ex US Poet Laureate and one of my favourite poets) and have been reflecting on the state of my poetry just now. My poetry 'high water' mark was probably from mid-2015 to mid-2016. It had been building since 2010 or so but in those twelve months, my writing was really flowing. I went on a couple of courses, one quite unexpectedly, and both had a huge impact on me. I made friends at both, my first 'actual' poet friends, a number of whom I still have. Importantly for me, I found like minds at those courses. They made a huge difference to me. There is some (rather obvious) theory in creativity circles that being with a group of people who are somewhat (but not ridiculously) better than you is the most stimulating place to be. Certainly the second of these two courses was exactly this. I felt that I had scraped on to it, and I was certainly one of the least 'accomplished' a...