This poem has an almost magical effect in the classroom as it never fails in reproducing the very experience that it describes. Students unfailingly extend human sympathy and understanding towards Timothy. In a beautiful echo of Timothy's own loud 'amen' it is always those students with the most troubled lives themselves who are swiftest to comprehend Timothy's plight and the irony implicit his innocent prayer. Classroom responses to this poem also illustrate the wonderful power of poetic language to illuminate even when first literal meanings have become inaccessible. I have heard several wonderful interpretations of 'with eyes as wide as a football pool' still strangely in keeping with the original poem but connecting now with aspirations to the lives of highly paid footballers, their mansions and their pools.

The significance and the power of hearing accent is, of course, an important aspect of the Archive. From Charles Causley's compassionate Cornish burr we move to Jackie Kay's musical Scottish tones. Her unique energy and engagement are captured and reflected in the fabric of the sounds she makes. This poem centres on two ideas that always engage students: love, and slightly more surprisingly, imaginary friends. The poem rings so true, that a classroom can become flooded with students freed from self-consciousness and wishing to share details of their own imaginary companions. The poem becomes a gift from the point of view of encouraging creative writing and getting students to select significant details from their own lives which will then resonate beyond their initial meaning when crafted in to poetry.

This poem is a stunningly beautiful swirl of sounds and images. Lee's voice conjures the almost holy, watery beauty of a rural early morning but his commentary invites us to consider the bleakness of our own London environment. The poem can be used to encourage students to listen with their hearts rather than their intellects and to appreciate the sheer beauty of sounds and phrases before subjecting work to any intellectual analysis. I ask them to listen to the recording two or three times and stress that understanding is not important at this stage. Instead I ask that they simply pick out a phrase that they found particularly beautiful and we cover the board with these words in playful way. Then we begin to find connections between these seemingly random selections, and slowly they move from just being arrested by the beauty of the sounds and images towards an analysis of the fabric of the poem itself.

My last choice is just about me, not the classroom. I love the 'humility at one with craft' which Jennings identifies in Rembrandt's work but which also is so evident in her own, honest and true, choice of language and subject. The connecting land between different art forms is always an interesting place but the landscape between painting and poetry has a special pull for me. I enjoy the restraint in her voice as she reads and the rigour which governs her writing. Her work always has an intense, spiritual resonance for me.