@brianbilston

Do you know the poem Japanese Jokes for Anthony Thwaite by Peter Porter?

It's a series of sort of Haiku. I think it was actually written to poke fun at Western poets appropriating the form.

I read it many years ago but found the last verse really resonated with teenage me.

Somewhere at the heart
Of the universe sounds the
True mystic note: Me.

@brianbilston

Might even have been the same one. My English teacher let me keep mine as I showed an interest (probably quite rare in my school).

I still have my well thumbed copy.

@brianbilston

Yes! Funny and dark.

Waving not drowning also.

That was/is such a great book. As a teenage boy I was of course drawn to the more funny poems, and the ones with swears obviously (looking at you Larkin), but it led me Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney too.

Eventually it led me to your work Brian, which I love. Thank you 🙏.