I am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen. I know this is not a good idea, and that being in love, I could be spending my time going over the best that has been happening.

The poet Jackie Kay introduces and reads some of her best-known poems for children: Brendon Gallacher The poet remembers an imaginary childhood friend. Red running shoes The poet explores her ...

Jackie Kay uses similes in her poem, Bushfire. 'That fire they said was red, as red, as red, as red as a fox, your lips, a cherry.' William Wordsworth also used similes skilfully to create imagery ...

Raised to believe in the power of protest by her adoptive activist parents, Jackie Kay recounts a lifetime of marching – against wars, against racism but always for love. Her poems contain anger ...

Jackie Kay crafts the poem carefully to draw the reader into its world. Kay’s use of direct address (‘you’) puts the reader in the role of the silent lover who has not called. Kay’s ...

You can discover a lot about a poem by comparing it to one by another ... Rita Dove uses occasional rhyming couplets and 10-line stanzas. Jackie Kay uses three-line unrhymed stanzas.

Later in the poem, the mention of ‘hoaxes’ and a feeling ... times together’, ‘this very second’, ‘All the time’ Kay’s narrator is constantly preoccupied with the passing of ...

This video shows a reading of ‘Dusting the Phone’ by Jackie Kay. It is about infatuation and the frustration of love. The poem’s content, ideas, language and structure are explored.

Jackie Kay’s anxious and edgy poem traces the thoughts and feelings of someone waiting for a call from a lover. The speaker describes the frustrations of ‘hoaxes, wrong numbers’ and boring ...