Colin Will, formerly a scientific librarian, has had four poetry collections published, the latest being Sushi & Chips (Diehard Publishers, 2006). He chairs the board of StAnza: Scotland's International Poetry Festival, and he is webmaster for Poetry Scotland. He is also a publisher, under the name Calder Wood Press. In 2008 he was appointed Poet Partner to Elgin. He lives in Dunbar, near the 'Debateable Lands' of the Scottish border. He has travelled widely within Europe, and he has also visited the USA, Japan, China and Tibet. His poetry is a poetry of place, and his themes reflect a love of people and the natural world, often in language derived from his scientific background.

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'The New American Poetry, 1945-1960, edited by Donald M Allen (Grove Press, 1960). I bought my copy of this book in 1961 from Edinburgh 's Paperback bookshop, the one run by Jim Haynes, arts activist and co-founder of the Traverse Theatre. The shop had a stuffed rhinoceros head mounted above the door, and I loved it. At that time I was just starting to write, and it was a bit of a lightning bolt to discover, after the earnestness and, I'd have to say, stuffiness, of conventional British poetry, people like Gary Snyder, Edward Dorn, Brother Antoninus (William Everson), Robert Creeley, Gregory Corso, the Beats, and many others.

They communicated with me, and since then the poem as an act of communication has been the cornerstone of my own writing. It's why I love Norman MacCaig's poetry too, although I also have a personal connection with him, as he taught at my old primary school (Craiglockhart), and I can hear his voice as I read his work. It's also why I dislike poetry which deliberately sets out to obscure meaning and hide emotion. Poetry should wear its heart on its sleeve.'

Current Favourites

'Mountain Home; the wilderness poetry of ancient China, selected and translated by David Hinton (Anvil Press, 2007). This is a wonderful collection of poetry written in the ‘mountains and rivers' style of Chinese poetry, which reached its peak (no pun intended) in the T'ang Dynasty
(7th to 10th century). There are many poets represented here, my favourites being Wang Wei, Li Po (Li Bai), Tu Fu (Du Fu), Po Chü-I and Chia Tao (Jia Dao).

The style (shan-shui) is deceptively simple, but sets the poet within a wilderness which is on an altogether grander scale than mere landscape or ‘nature' poetry, but contains the cosmological concepts of Chinese philosophy – the world views of Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism (Ch'an).

Recent UK collections that I've enjoyed include Moniza Alvi's Europa (Bloodaxe 2008), Jean Sprackland's Tilt (Cape 2007) and Mario Petrucci's Flowers of Sulphur (Enitharmon 2007).'

Colin Will, July 2008

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Featured poem

Seven moons

The first moon is just past full,
and pale, high in the day-blue sky.

The second is a sword-edge
at midnight, Auvergne , slicing
the star-strewn velvet.

The third is haloed,
presaging snow.

The fourth moon is a round of butter
in a hot harvest night, stifled by desire.

The fifth moon, earth-eclipsed,
is a muddy red, omened with prophecies.

The sixth is shuttered repeatedly
by flailing clouds.

The seventh moon is the one
which must not be named.

Colin Will © 2006
In Sushi & Chips (Diehard 2006)