Ian Copestick writes

Training

I was once asked if I thought that
any training was needed to be a poet.
At the time I said " No." But now,
I think that, if anything, you need
to train yourself to recognise those
moments, those special moments
when they arrive. The little epiphanies,
the ones that spark a poem off.
You have to train your eye, at times
they are not easy to notice. Many
times they're not the usual 'poetic' things
like sunsets, or roses. They can be, but
more often, it's more personal, fear, rage,
heartache, hatred. It could be almost
anything. A shaft of sunlight, reflected
off the chrome of a car. It's in the
noticing of such moments. I think that's
where the art is involved, and the
training is needed. If it's in any way
possible to learn such things.