I am busy working on the Moon Calendar for next year, and on Wednesdays working at the West Yorkshire Print Workshop, open access for printmaking. This week I etched the copper plate of a drawing of a willow tree that I made many years ago on the bank of the Tyne.

Poetry is a reflection on life. There are lots of skilful ways of turning a piece of writing into something that feels complete, that has an internal balance, that wakes us up to contrasts and variablility in our world, and maybe, if we are lucky, achieves a kind of transformation, shifting our thoughts from one cast to another as the words take you on a journey.

I have found sometimes that writing a poem has lifted a mood and left me somewhere more satisfying.