News at Eleven: Being able to write poetry is a gift

given to very few. You can learn how to be a better poet but, if the spark isn't there, no creative writing course will turn you into what Shelley called "the unacknowledged legislators of the world". Poetry is a vocation, not a profession, and like all vocations it is to be struggled with and the rewards are scant.

This is where Ruth Padel, Oxford poetry professor for nine days, went wrong.

from The Sunday Times: The wisest poets, my poppet, don't give up the day job

~~~~~~~~~~~