Don Paterson is an award-winning poet, editor and teacher, but for all his technical ability and the recognition that has been paid to his work Paterson is acutely aware of awe and sometimes envy when he looks at the work of other writers. Here he applies his wit and skills of technical analysis to discussing the five poems he wishes he had written.

The Underground

There we were in the vaulted tunnel running,

Or some new white flower japped with crimson

Honeymooning, moonlighting, late for the Proms,

To end up in a draughty lamplit station

from Station Island (Faber, 1984), copyright (c) Seamus Heaney 1984,.