So you want to write a poem about Manchester. But hang on a minute, nothing rhymes with Manchester!

All is not lost as our in-house poet, Richard Fair, offers some advice and pointers.

Poetry is a thankless pursuit. You spend hours, days, weeks, perhaps even a lifetime agonising over a line or a word or, as is often the case, a comma. Then, when you've completed your work you read it to a friend. They don't like it. You're gutted.

My big mistake was that I was trying to write poetry in the hope that other people would like it, rather than take the totally selfish approach and write it for me. So I changed my approach. It was like a breath of fresh air and inspiration. So don't write the poem for Andrew Motion, write it for you.

Need inspiration? Get out there, into Manchester. Live it, breathe it. Feel the rumble of the trams, hear the call of the Evening News vendor and smell the bins and doorways on a Monday morning.

Don't think about the forty word limit. Write what you feel, what you think, what you see and hear. You can edit it later. And if you end up with a fifteen word gem, don't start tinkering with it to expand the word count.

Don't spend all night worrying about rhymes and couplets, stanzas and verses. Write what feels comfortable to you. If it rhymes, fantastic. If it doesn't, fantastic.

But the best advice I can offer is to simply have a go. It's as easy as you want it to be and Andrew Motion and the Poetry Police will not be banging on your door demanding that you never write another poem again.

Sport

Music

Arts

Features