My first memorable poetry encounter was at the age of 10, when my junior school teacher asked me to read 'Sometime during Eternity' by the Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, at the school assembly. I still remember loving the feel of the poem on my lips as well as the different look of it on the page. So I began my Poetry Archive selection with another Beat poet, the great Allen Ginsberg. I chose his heart-breaking 'On Neal Cassidy’s Ashes', which lists the physical details of Neal Cassidy, Ginsberg’s ex lover: nipples, ribs, mouth, ear lobes, cock tip… and then counterpoints that vital physicality with ‘all ashes, all ashes.’ It’s such a strong, short poem, full of the physicality of life and the strong emotions of loss. What I love about it - and so much of the Beats poetry - is that it has such an utter belief in poetry, in the power of it.

In contrast, I then sought out Charlotte Mew. I did a podcast on her, so I knew something of her strange, elliptical voice. The poem I went for was 'Fame', read here by poet Jo Shapcott. It’s about being in the exclusivity of fame and then out of it ‘among the crowd where no-one fits the singer to the song’. It’s tricky, fascinating stuff, haunted as ever by Mew’s air of sadness.

For a bit of a crowd pleaser, I turned to Billy Collins’s 'Forgetfulness', about the increasing number of things he can no longer remember. In the recording he’s reading it live to an audience, and you can hear the crowd relaxing into increased laughter. Billy is not afraid of being funny in his writing/reading, and I love that about him. But there’s the undertow of darkness too: as we laugh, we get the sharp stab of loss. Billy Collins is one of my fail-safe poetry recommendations to anyone searching for a way in to poetry– I recommended him recently to Joan Bakewell and she loved him. Thank you Billy!

Then a couple of other poets whose work I know and admire, and who I loved finding here – plus they led me on to new discoveries. I covered both Scottish poet Don Paterson and Northern Irish poet Leontia Flyn in my podcast, and I chose Paterson’s father/son poem 'Waking with Russell' for its balance of love and lack of sentimentality, delivered in Paterson’s gruff, growling accent.

From Leontia I chose 'Saturday in the Pool', because I know as I read it again that the poem will yield more and more. I also like the way Leontia’s biography lists her influences, and how they will set me off on another chain of discovery. To find the next poet to change my life!