‘My aim in ‘Amicabilis Concordia’ was to expand on that fleeting, wordless occurrence which sometimes takes place between strangers who share an outward similarity. In this instance, the outward similarity is race. The poem concentrates on evanescence and a fleeting affinity borne of circumstance

‘In ‘Admonishment’, again, I’ve expanded on the briefest of incidents. Heading out one evening last Summer, I saw someone deep in concentration, framed in their window, so to speak, and apparently oblivious to anything but the page, on what was (in both senses of the word) a balmy summer night. Of course, I had no idea as to what was absorbing her, but the shadows crowding in on this square of light and her unswerving attention to the task in hand struck a chord. It was resonant because I was experiencing something of an arid period in terms of getting anything meaningful onto the page.’