What do you listen to if you are looking for inspiration to write a poem? What song or what kind of song gets you into the mood, or helps you appreciate the process of writing poetry? In this podcast we have some suggestions, and also the perfect person to teach us about writing poetry, renowned poet and author Finuala Dowling, who has spent much of her life teaching poetry. Her five collections of poetry include Pretend you Don’t Know Me, a new and selected volume that brings together many of her most popular poems. She is joined by journalists and regulars Fred de Vries and Tim Cohen who try to pretend they too know something about the topic. The songs we chose are Nina Simone - My Father ; Nick Cave - Frogs ; Bob Dylan - Series of Dreams ; The Stooges - Search and Destroy ; Cat Power - Maybe Not ; Tom Waits - Come on up to the House ; Theuns Jordaan - Beautiful in Beaufort Wes ; Patti Smith - Ain't it strange ; and Gil-Scot Heron - The revolution won’t be televised. Agree or disagree with our choices, please contact us on perfectsongfor@gmail.com. More on Finuala is available https://finualadowling.com/. Full songs on Spotify