I have a two-week visit to Chile planned for mid-September. The main focus of my trip will be to spend four days in the Atacama desert (I love deserts). Almost on a whim, I emailed several seats of learning to ask whether they might be interested in a reading by a British poet. The University of Santiago replied. I am to deliver three 80-minute readings of my own work and that of other poets I admire (eg Plath, Lawrence, Browning, Wylie, Mandelstam, Owen, Ahkmatova) to third-year English Literature students. I am excited and feel honoured.