As soon as we read the first stanza of ANNETTE VOLFING's poem Run, we knew we wanted to publish her in The Passionate Transitory: "She had hoped for a hare. / Just one, something fast and mad / ripping the moon-damp fields, / a thumper like herself . . ." She sees the world with a delightfully fresh eye, and her poems capture moments with imagistic precision. We love her description of a garden "creaking" under the snow in her poem Whiteout, and her image of muntjacs stepping out of a cloud in Run has visionary power.
Can you remember the first poem you ever wrote, how old you were when you wrote it, and what it was about?
When I was very little (5 or 6), I wrote some poems about how much I loved my mummy. Apart from those, the first poem I remember writing was when I was 9; it was about the arrival of New Year (personified as a winged, Cupid-like child). I wrote in Danish back then.
Name a favourite poem or two . . .
TS Eliot's "The Waste Land".
. . . and a few of your favourite poets.
Denise Levertov, Robert Lowell, David Harsent, Fiona Sampson.
Do you talk about poetry with your friends or is it a secret part of your life?
I am constantly pestering friends to comment on my poems.
Do you write poetry for yourself, or for others, or for both?
Both.
Is it important to you if your poems get published or not?
Yes, very important.
Do you think poetry is important in the global scale of things or just a pleasant, indulgent hobby like needlework or trainspotting?
I think art is extremely important for human happiness, and poetry is the art form that interests me the most.
What does poetry really mean to you?
An opportunity to explore the power of language.
Is poetry better than sex?
No.
