John Lucas is a poet, critic, biographer and novelist and Professor Emeritus at the Universities of Loughborough and Nottingham Trent. He lives in Nottingham and runs the poetry press Shoestring Press.
His chosen poem is ‘The Song of Caedmon’ by Liverpool poet Matt Simpson (1936 – 2009). John Lucas and Matt Simpson were close friends. John has chosen this poem, he says, because, “[it’s] a very beautiful poem about not feeling yourself qualified to write poetry, but at the same time discovering the force of poetry speaking through you.
Acknowledgement: Our thanks to Shoestring Press for permission to record ‘The Song of Caedmon’ by Matt Simpson in this podcast.