We have poetry on our minds all through the month of March as part of our year long celebration of all things books and reading for The National Year of Reading 2026.
Poetry is a fantastic medium to read, write and perform and with World Poetry Day falling on the 21st of March we want to share lots of wonderful poets, their published words and their generously shared thoughts and insight into the value of poetry, how it can work in classrooms and why they love it so much.
Not really. I write whenever and wherever the mood takes me. I try to have a notebook handy most of the time, but sometimes ideas come to me when I’m in the shower, and I have to keep them in my head and make sure they don’t leak out before I get a chance to jot them down. I also tend to do quite a lot of writing on trains, travelling between various schools for my workshops.
I’ve always enjoyed words, and I certainly remember relishing the chance to use them whenever we wrote poetry in class. I remember Michael Rosen coming to visit my school when I was in Year 4, and that was a really special and exciting experience. It showed me that poetry can be performed, as well as written. As I got older, poetry became more and more associated with exams and tests, which did sap the enjoyment somewhat. But I never did lose that fundamental love of words and wordplay.
One of my favourite poems that I’ve written is all about love. It’s a piece called ‘And So I Write’, which you can read here. It is the final piece in my new collection. Interestingly, it was not written for children. But I think it could work well for any age. In many respects, I don’t delineate between children’s and adults’ poetry – I just write what I want to write, and I hope people of all ages will be able to dig around in my oeuvre and find something that speaks to them.
That is has to rhyme! I’m always telling children that that is not the case. Another misconception, I think, is that you need to be a very bookish, academic person in order to appreciate it. I have nothing against that sort of poetry, and I’ve probably written one or two of those kinds of poems myself, but I really do try to ensure my work speaks to as many people as possible.
I love words, and playing with words. I love bringing words to life on the page and in performance. I love humour and making people laugh, and I love the complexity and range of emotions that can be expressed. I also like the fact that poems are usually quite short, so when writing poetry I can get that sense of achievement in a relatively short space of time.
I would say give it a go! And you can watch poems in performance on the internet, you don’t have to just read it from a book. I love writing poems for people who might not think that poetry is for them! As well as my books, I also have a wide range of free poems available on my website.
I would advise these teachers to try and read a wide range of poetry, and share a wide range of poetry in class. This will demonstrate that poetry is not any one thing; it comes in many forms, and can be approached in many ways. There are many poems out there that can be used as effective writing models. In other words, when children or teachers come across these poems, they may think that they could so something a bit like that. Oh yes, and teachers should share a range of non-rhyming poetry in class. When children try to write rhyming poetry, it can end up being rather restrictive. They may be better of focusing on some other language techniques. Repetition and alliteration are two favourites of mine!
It can make you laugh. It can make you cry. It can make you think. It can bore you. It can excite you. It has limitless potential.
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Many thanks to Josh for generously sharing his poetry insight. You can see more about his popular poetry collections using the links below and find out about poetry or having Josh visit your school by visiting his website here.
