'The Singing Stream' is a book about places – three particular places, in Wales, Cornwall and France. In each place, I was on holiday; walking, exploring, visiting churches and other buildings, immersing myself in the history and in local preoccupations, both past and present. My poems are of seascapes and townscapes; they explore the natural world, historical figures and myth. There are religious and artistic connections; and of course, my responses to all these things. Each of the three cycles has its own particular atmosphere. The sea plays a great part – in Wales, we stayed on the Pembrokeshire coast, and in Cornwall, not far from Land’s End. St Valery-sur-Somme in France, is on the Picardy coast. In each place, we saw the sea every day.