It was electrifying, proper shiver-down-the-spine stuff, a reminder how powerful poetry can be. In first year at secondary school, I remember the impact of reading Edwin Morgan, Stevie Smith and Christina Rossetti for the first time (we had a brilliant English teacher, who opened our eyes and ears to a whole world of words beyond the prescribed texts we sat down to in class, and the limitations of the syllabus.) Love of poetry has stayed with me, through university, where I studied everything from Emily Dickinson to the Scottish Ballads, and discovered, via the Edinburgh Fringe, Roger McGough and the genius of John Hegley.