West Sussex Poet Laureate

Above: Hugh Dunkerley

Sussex Life

Interview by Janet Raby. Portrait by Kate Eastman

In schools and libraries,Hugh reads or writes poetry and encourages others to pick up their pens and get writing. He has even travelled to Japan to teach poetry, and is also a senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester.He has even travelled to Japan to teach poetry, as Poet Laureate and is also a senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Chichester.

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You can teach people to learn the craft of poetry writing and encourage them, but to write well, you have to have an overwhelming need, almost bordering on an obsession. Someone may be born with a gift for poetry writing but never express it because they’ve simply not had the opportunity. As Poet Laureate I hope to reach more people who may just fall in love with poetry as I have.

I came to poetry pretty late, when I was about 17 or 18. The language in Shakespeare’s plays and John Donne’s poems had quite an influence on me. I was a teenager, and a lot of John Donne’s early poems were about sex and getting women into bed, that had a great appeal. For an Elizabethan, his writing was surprisingly modern.

I lost the first ‘proper’ poem I ever wrote. It was scribbled down on a piece of paper when I’d finished an English A Level exam and was feeling a little bored. It was inspired by a painting which had made a great impression on me. It was by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich and was of a ship being crushed by ice.

For me, poetry is like a piece of music. I like to hear the sounds and visualise the images that they produce in my head.

I guess I’ve a bit of a fascination with water and one of my favourite poems is entitled The River. I started writing it while I was living in Bristol in the 1980s and was inspired by The River Avon. Nature features heavily in my work. I like walking and environmental issues. In Sussex we are lucky to be surrounded by some stunning scenery.

It’s very rewarding. One of the most rewarding aspects has been the chance to launch the popular Tongues and Strings evenings in Chichester alongside my University colleague and writer Dave Swann. Poets, writers and musicians all come along and it’s a stimulating environment...

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