A poet of striking originality and cunning, a genuinely distinctive voice in the murmur and babble of the contemporary - Neil Corcoran

I go to the rockpool at the slack of tide/ to mind me what my poetry's for. - Jen Hadfield from 'Daed-traa'.

I suppose what I really like is to set up a system which looks wonderfully secure when you first encounter it on the page, but within the framework there are crazy things which tip the reader off-balance. - Bill Manhire

Robert Minhinnick is the leading Welsh poet of his generation. - The Sunday Times

Harsent has an unusual claim to notice: you begin every poem with the certain prospect of pleasure and surprise. - Martin Amis, Observer

Come close the flower says and we come close, / close enough to lift, cup and smell the rose - 'Come Close', Mimi Khalvati

In my poetry I give primacy to the breath. For me it is the way the poem breathes that gives it form. - Penelope Shuttle

The poet shouldn't draw attention to his stylistic self; the poem should be a lens through which something crucial is seen. - Peter Dale

What is / My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks. - 'Belfast Confetti', Ciaran Carson

Young or old / What was I but the story told / By an unageing one? (Kathleen Raine, from 'Ah, many, many are the dead...')

not a thing no one will stop me I've got to go / down to the wild sea - 'Sea Wind', Tom Paulin