People who inspire you

[tomoffing]

To be perfectly honest, I hadn't read or written any poetry when I started writing poem.

A lot of people are like that -- I'm sure that's changed! Reading other people's poetry -- especially the greats, since they provide the finest examples -- is the best (some would say only) way to learn.

Without doubt the cornerstone of improvement, although it rarely feels like any is evident.
I must admit I find it intimidating at times. Nothing dashes confidence like hearing what occurred to you as a faintly novel or original thought spoken more succinctly and with greater depth than you could ever hope to imagine!

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Being from the same neck of the woods, the northern Irish poets are favorites (Heaney, Mahon, Kavanagh et al.)
Antartica by Derek Mahon in fact is probably the work that inspires me.

Big John Cooper Clarke fan too, Twat is one of the funniest poems written imo