What is poetry to you?

Poetry is the translator and the output. It is the heart of the matter. It is the unsaid things in written form.

Tell me more about how you first experienced poetry.

School introduced me to Dylan Thomas and then I realised that we had a connection through my grandfather. I had always loved writing poetry at home, unprompted– it felt like a natural act, and it still does.

What or who was it that inspired you to write poetry?

I went to university and took a break from writing to concentrate on academia. When I left, I started to feel the pull of writing again. I started devouring Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Charles Bukowski and the poetic prose of Anais Nin. Through this, my voice found its place. These days I use a lot more magical techniques in my work - I work with automatic writing, dreams and symbolism. The poetry is lot more personal and interior-based than ever before. Employing magic in my work is just exposing another facet of myself through the art of writing.

Is poetry a compulsive form of art for you?

Absolutely it is. The ideas I come up with, the conversations I hear, the people I see, the dreams I have – it all stores itself up inside me and my only way to let that take form is to write about it.

When writing, do you prefer a laptop, your phone or a notebook?

I have begun using notebooks a lot more. I had been writing directly onto my laptop but then realised, when I was making notes by hand, my writing was extremely untidy, and it was quite a struggle. That very night I had a dream that I bought a fountain pen and my writing regained its beauty – it was a sign to get back to ink and paper.

Do you have a workspace? Or are you happy to work anywhere? If you have a workspace, could you tell me about it.

I do have a desk where I write and this is the final place where all the ideas come home. They come via writings in a café, on the London Underground or whilst taking a lunchbreak. These fragments are gathered up and let loose on my desk.

Are you a lone wolf when it comes to your poetry or do you actively get involved in a community?

I have a small community of creative folk that I know through the Black Flowers Arts Journal but when it comes to my own work – I am very private and would not feel comfortable doing performance poetry or sharing my work in a circle of poets. I release my own work as part of a project in the form of a chapbook every now and again.