Here’s a simple way to build a poem or a rap: collect words from the street. What you do is write down the names of shops, buildings, stations that you see. You add in the kinds of ads that you see up in the street, stuff to do with ‘buy this!’ You make up a chorus about walking down the ...read more

People often ask me for tips about writing poems. I always say that the best and simplest way to think about writing poems is first to read some poems. Then as you read say to yourself ‘I could write like that’. When you think about those words ‘like that’, that means you could write a poem that sounds like that; ...read more