Sources of inspiration

My new book is currently at the printers!  Exciting.  This book has taken over a year to write, rewrite and edit.  Mary, my editor at Walker is fantastic with feedback and suggestions.  No mean feat tackling the editing of poetry.

It's all about animals, domestic, wild, Australian, farm.   I now research for information about that animal, then find a tone, a dramatic entry, a patterning to write the poem.

The whole collection is centred around a prose poem called 'Guinea Pig town '.

Some poems were written while overseas like the Flamingo poem, Narwhal gained its inspiration from a castle in Scotland.

But at the weekend we went to Werribee Zoo  and I loved the animals there- wish I'd had the photos I have now to write from...

I think the growth from this collection for my own writing craft, is the research needed to make that small animal poem full of vibrancy and detail.  Important poetic considerations from my viewpoint.

What's important in poetry to you?