A Signals Interview with Jamie McKendrick

Is there a particular method you use when writing? Is writing poetry a constant preoccupation?

No method, unfortunately, but the absence of method. I envy poets like Montale who write, as he claimed, with "pochi ritocchi" (few retouchings). In my case most early drafts are execrable, but if there's a halfway decent line, (and this is the same process for translation) the poem seems to have a chance. It's an intermittent thing for me - I noticed with dismay that there's a six year gap between my last two books. Only very occasionally do I try to write something without having first felt some kindled excitement, and then I quickly abandon it as useless. Better times occur when one line leads to another, and even one poem leads to another