Joelle Barron : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

My grandfather had a book called, The Top 500 Poems (ed. William Harmon). It’s a tome with a watercolour painting on the cover in blues and greens. My grandpa used to read to me from it, mostly Lewis Carroll. I eventually ended up with the book, and would read, “The Lady of Shalott” every night before going to sleep. I later learned that these 500 poems were actually a very narrow view of what poetry could be, and that was a relief, because I thought most of these so-called “top” poems were spectacularly boring.