Writing sonnets seems like a strange thing to do in the first decade of the 21st Century, when Shakespeare’s sonnets were published all of four hundred years ago. But somehow, at this stage in my writing life, it’s what I want to be doing.

Inspired by writers like Don Paterson, Edna St Vincent Millay and the old boy himself, my teenage novel has been put aside for the moment, and I’m enjoying the sensation of writing two or three sonnets a week, the ideas for which keep coming and coming. I’ve decided to allow it to happen; such huge bouts of creativity come very rarely in a writer’s life, so I’m just going enjoy it. So what do we have? About forty sonnets written in four months, on topics ranging from religion, to sexual politics, to stories I’ve held close to me for many years, and surprisingly quite a few nature poems.

After years of writing free verse I’m working in a very strict form and finding the discipline is creating its own energy and creativity. I’m finding just how exciting and rejuvenating being newly inspired can be; it’s not exactly making me feel like a teenager but I do feel I am kicking up my heels in the air again…

PS: Check out my poem ‘twelve lines and a couplet’ on my Facebook page; it’s an attempt to describe the new discipline.