Music is the beating heart of my poetry. The sound of words in a certain order gives rhythm to my poems; it is a way of expressing emotions, feelings, thoughts and ideas about what is happening around me.

As a child in Trinidad singing and telling stories were as natural a part of my life as breathing. Long before I grew to love the beauty of language in poetry, I enjoyed its rhythm of music in storytelling. Those stories were about folklore characters and jumbies (ghosts); and often accompanied with song. My imagination went wild, making these stories heart-thumpingly scarier and scarier. Looking back, I suppose, it was then the seed that linked poetry and music was planted in my mind.

This music-poetry link continued during my Infant and early Elementary Schools. Recitation of poetry then was an important part of my education. Poems were learned by heart and recited to the class, in a rhythmic sing-song manner. I loved the rhythms and rhymes of poems in our Nelson’s West Indian Readers. I recited The Naughty Boy by John Keats; The Lost Doll by Charles Kingsley; Little Birdie by Lord Tennyson; The Mock Turtle’s Song by Lewis Carroll, and many others written by reputed authors of English literature.

Music was always in the air. In school there were periods of singing practice in two and three part harmonies. Drink to me Only with Thine Eyes is a song that comes readily to mind.

Outside the classroom, the happy, jaunty calypsos were frequently heard in the language of our everyday conversations, now sometimes described as ‘nation language’, a term introduced by the Caribbean poet, Edward Kamau Brathwaite.

My poetry is often influenced by calypso, which is storytelling in music about life in Trinidad and Tobago. When I write, read and perform calypso-inspired poems the rhythm of nation language is my natural form of expression. They invite listeners to join in, often in the call and response form, or in the verse and chorus of early calypsos. Carnival and calypso are twin sisters. I cannot think of one without the other; and when I read these poems in public, I want to dance with the words.

I admire the freedom of jazz, especially in the music of Charlie Parker with its fluid improvisations. His playing gives me the courage to go with the flow when I write, particularly in the very early stages of a poem. It is a good way to get the creative juices flowing before beginning the refining and rewriting: putting the right word in the right order. Charlie Parker’s ability for hard work is an inspiration to me. His music would not have been so successful without it. The same is true of writing poetry as in making music.

Listening attentively to music is to be in the present. It relaxes me, puts me in the mood for writing. It is worth a try when you write your own poetry. It is worth remembering that in the beginning poetry was solely a spoken activity, when listeners had the in-the-moment experience of the musical rhythm in the human voice. For this reason, it is good practice to read aloud your work at different stages of writing. This way it helps you to get right its rhythm and meaning.

I also use music in the background while writing, or painting for that matter. I enjoy playing the same piece of music over and over again, and I become more aware, without thinking about it, of its repetitions, the particular parts I like best, its rhythm and how it makes me feel. In that atmosphere feeling words and ideas come to me. There is another way I use music as an inspiration, especially for poems influenced by calypso/carnival. I create words with patterns of sound to match rhythms of calypso or music played on steel drums, as I have done in poems Trinidad Carniva and Carnival, both of which are published in my first published poetry book Lure of the Cascadura.

Poets and musicians do sometimes perform together, as I have with saxophonist, Josh Ison at Hot Numbers in Cambridge. He improvised to my poems and I made up an on-the-spot poem to his free jazz improvisations.

In America Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis among others in the past, have performed with poets. Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez, have also performed to jazz. For more information about these artists, the internet is a good source. Closer to home however, here are written examples of music-inspired poems: ‘Car Crash Blues’, from Collected Poems by Adrian Henri; ‘Tamboo Bamboo Ban’, from my book Voices from a Silk-Cotton Tree by John Lyons.

I’m ending with some of my favourite music to listen to when writing poetry:

Calypso: Mighty Sparrow Sparromania (Wit, Wisdom and Soul from the King of Calypso 1960-1976) - particularly side 1, No. 7 Kennedy And Krushchev and side 2, No. 6 Lion & Donkey.

Jazz: Charlie Parker - Original Bird: The Best of Bird on Savoy, especially No 5 Barbados, No. 8 Thriving On A Riff, No. 10 Bird Gets The Worm.

John Lyons latest book, Dancing in the Rain, also illustrated by the poet (Peepal Tree Press) has been shortlisted for this year’s CLPE children’s poetry award (CLiPPA for short)