'There is no God,' the wicked saith, 'and truly it's a blessing, for what he might have done with us it's better only guessing.? - Arthur Hugh Clough 'There Is No God'

Strands of autobiography, a deeply sensuous ecology of place, historical narratives; the inner world of imagination and the often difficult realities of the postcolonial nation are interwoven in McWatt's bold but carefully worked out architecture. Peepal Tree

But love is a durable fire, in the mind ever burning; never sick, never old, never dead, from itself never turning. - Walter Ralegh 'Walsingham'

Adventurous, compelling and utterly original - The Times

'Francis shows us how exactingly language is a form of attention and how poetry can hold our attention in spectacular ways'. The Guardian

The composition stage of the poem is not finished until I am satisfied with how the poem works in the mouth and in the ear as well as in relation to its imagery and its meaning.

It was no dream: I lay broad waking. Thomas Wyatt 'They Flee From Me'

She is all States, and all princes I, / Nothing else is. John Donne

"If I don't write to empty my mind, I go mad." Lord Byron

If life had a second edition, how I would correct the proofs?. John Clare

It's an existential act, it's vocational, a necessity, a way of working things out.

Dorothea Smartt reveals a poetic intelligence and maturity of form and content which definitely locates her among the best of her generation of poets. - Carol Boyce Davies