Last week I was at the Betsey Trotwood for the launch of Campaign in Poetry, Emma Press’ political anthology. I was pleased to have two poems included, and it was an interesting event with some blisteringly great moments – Kayo Chingonyi’s Legerdemain and Luke Kennard’s Poor Door made me particularly envious. Both are online, so do read them immediately (‘We built a stack of gambling chips in your neighbourhood…’)

If I have a ‘subject’ it’s human relationships, and as I’ve moved beyond my early love poetry, more and more I want to look at wider relationships – control, fear, guilt, responsibility – which has meant I’m increasingly interested in the political.

But political poetry is a risky business. It is easily reduced to parody: the performance poet’s rant about bedroom tax (rhyming soulless with ‘control us’). The grim, slightly misogynist ‘satire’ about X Factor Culture. The middle-class poet’s plaint about diminishing songbirds to an audience of the converted.