Luke Wright books

copyright Rebecca Bruce

Every month, we will ask a poet to provide us with a list of their top 5 favourite poetry collections.

1. Luke Wright

Ten Years In An Open Necked Shirt by John Cooper Clarke (Arrow)

Ross Sutherland lent me his copy when I was 17, eventually he managed to hunt me down, pin me to a wall and get it back, which is no mean feat for Ross, given how wheezy he is. It's very rare these days. I finally bought my own copy from Amazon Marketplace for £40. When I started out this was The Bible to me. I spent hours studying the poems stealing the rhyme structures. My favourite is probably still 'Euro Communist/Gucci Socialist'.

The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin (Faber)

It was had to know which Larkin collection to include without copping out and just putting Collected Works. My favourite Larkin poem is actually a very late, unanthologised one called Aubade, but most of my other favs are in this collection. Mr Bleaney stands out as does the title poem. Tender, sad and oh so effortless, that Larkin fella knew a couple-a-three things.

Caligula on Ice and other poems by Tim Turnbull (Donut Press)

Turnbull is my favourite contemporary poet. I think we're always attracted to the things we could never be and his bone-dry northern wit is something I will always marvel at but never be able to pull off myself. Tim's also a master of form, something I at least make brave attempts to pull off. This book is hilarious, the lines stick in your head for months and what's more there'll be more from Mr Turnbull soon - makes Larkin look like a right lazy c**t.

Don Juan by Lord Byron (Penguin Classics)

I think Byron's sense of humour was way ahead of its time. The introduction immediately grabbed me - he's just taking the piss out of Southey and the Romantic Poets. I loved the flippancy in his voice married with the superb control of the the form (ottava rima). This poem has directly influenced my own work.

The New Blue Album by John Osborne (Nasty Little Press)

I wanted to include a book that I've published because I care so much about these things. I pour over them for hours at a time, I can quote huge chunks of them back at you. It's a tough call choosing just one but I've gone for this one seeing as it was the last one we published (in July this year) and because John was the first poet I ever published. John's work is as big-hearted and lovable as poetry can get. He has a brilliant knack for laying his pen on exactly the right turn of phrase or cultural reference to perfectly surmise a situation. His is a simple, quotidian world, one we all recognise but one that modern poetry so often ignores. I think John is one of the best poets of our generation, if not THE best. I just hope Faber don't steal him from me.

About Luke Wright

4Talent award winner Luke Wright might just be the hardest working man in poetry. Since 2006 he's launched his own curve-ball bid to become Poet Laureate, programmed and hosted Latitude's poetry arena (the largest poetry event in Europe) and has become one of the poets-in-residence on BBC Radio 4′s Saturday Live. He has five solo poetry stage shows. His fifth - Cynical Ballads - is touring throughout 2011, including a trip to Melbourne and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

He has also started writing poetry for films. In 2009 he took contemporary poetry onto primetime TV, writing all the poetry for Channel 4's The Seven Ages of Love (nominated for a prestigious Grierson Award). In 2010 he wrote and provided the voice-over for a 30 minute film on Channel 4 called The Bed, directed by Toby Paton. His first book, Who Writes This Crap?, co-written with Joel Stickley, was published by Penguin in 2007. He has two books of poetry published by Nasty Little Press. A short collection called High Performance (2009) and a single long, narrative poem entitled The Vile Ascent Of Lucien Gore And What The People Did (2011).