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Issue 10 w/ Mari Ellis Dunning

One of the first things poets are told – perhaps even before they realise they are poets – is to ‘write what you know’. Often stated by well-meaning teachers right before a classroom task begins, this is advice that encourages students to avoid the pitfalls of the elaborate and the fantastical, and instead favour the safety of their everyday, their known. Despite now sounding a little clichéd, ‘write what you know’ isn’t a bad maxim. As the poet Nigel Jenkins so adroitly said: “It may sometimes be there, but here is rarely too small a place.” There is poetry in the ordinary, and many great poems have been produced by those who are able to convey that well. However, there is also poetry to be found in the extraordinary, and especially in experiences far removed from our own. 

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