https://www.bbcmaestro.com/blog/how-to-become-a-better-poet

All the advice I’ve read so is that you must read a lot and in particular read a lot of poetry.

If you write poetry even if it’s not very good it makes it easier to read other people’s poetry and when reading a novel I am much more aware of how they describe people nature etc the kind of language that they use. P d James seems to have a poetic gift though as far as I know she did not write poetry as such.

My heart is like a rowing boat adrift
Whose occupant has fallen overboard
The empty vessel drifts through deep sea mist.
And in those pearl filled ears the deep sea roars.
Just as the boat drifts mapless,so do I.
My maps were drawn for quite another sea
My captain’s taken leave and now I cry
As if that drowned soul might just be me.
Yet on the sea bed mysteries abound;
Such wonders and such magic there displayed.
I wonder if it is my lot drown
And to a memory then quickly fade.
Maps are no more certainties than hints.
Between the lines hides gold from other mints.