"I was born in 1930, and began writing poetry before I knew what it
was. I assumed something was wrong with me. I didn't know about other
poets, except the ones we had to study in school. I'd reckoned that a
person became a poet only several years after his death. It had never
occurred to me to send poems off to publishers until I was in my
'forties. But since then, I've learnt to do that!"
John Birkbeck