The Poet and the Snipe

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects The Poet and the Snipe as Paul Farley looks at the complex ways in which poets find inspiration from birds.

Farley looks through the prism of one bird in particular - the fugitive, camera-shy snipe. Farley's mission is firstly to find one - not helped by a major decline in their numbers. His search travels via ancient Japanese poetry and post-punk music, and eventually sees him sinking deeper and deeper into a boggy morass of meditation and verse.

Produced By Geoff Bird

Recorded at RSPB Leighton Moss and RSPB Burton Mere

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2021.