I only started driving 3 years ago, just before reaching 40. I was ambivalent about it and still am, but I must say that I have acquired a new sense of both freedom and responsibility. I have taken a new direction in my poetry since that time. I have immersed myself in the haiku spirit and taken a sharp knife to the cliché, padding, sentimentality and uninteresting subjectivity which previously riddled much of my poetry. And I would say with some confidence that I have become a better poet than I was before I started driving. Having the car also means I can reach the natural world more easily than before. I've now acquired a Peugeot 206 CC, which has a roof you can pack into the boot at a push of a button. It's a joy to drive. I cycle to work still in the summer months, but I drive to work in the winter months. And I no longer suffer from the bugs and viruses which cycling to work exacerbated. I'd been scrounging lifts with a good ecological conscience for 20 years, so now the shoe's on the other foot (as they say in Danish).
Your disinclination to start driving is a sure sign that you are a good poet, Hugh. Now, start driving.
Duncan
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