"In a recent study of The Poet’s Notebook conducted by a PhD student at my University, a recurring pattern was uncovered: poetic observations at the front; practical information at the back; a whole load of empty pages in between. You may or may not recognise your own habits here, but what does the observation tell us about poets and their working patterns in general? Maybe the white blankness mirrors a real-life chasm that exists between creative endeavour and practical organisation. Maybe it indicates the ethereal workings of the poetic imagination. Maybe it tells us that poems begin as notes but take shape elsewhere. Or maybe it simply tells us that poets don’t love stationary as much as they say they do. Whatever the answer, I kept thinking about notebooks while I was reading and re-reading the wonderful poems of Suzannah V. Evans." Tara Bergin Carcanet

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