MOST of us who struggle to make a living out of writing in the English language would probably balk at the prospect of composing a decent poem.

Stories, reports, interviews, essays no problem. A catchy couplet? Forget it, mate.

I therefore take my hat off to Paulo Debernardi, who you might guess from his name, is not of English extraction.

In fact he is full-blooded Italian and speaks English with the sort of warm, broken Mediterranean accent that makes perfectly sensible middle-aged women come over all unnecessary.

However, not content just to talk in English, which he's been doing for only six years, Paolo has now decided to write poetry in the language too.

Pretty well.

Good enough anyway to have it published in a compilation book of British poets called Drifting Tides (Spotlight Poets £6.95).

In all, 12 writers contribute their work to the book, also among them are Wendy Grounds from Malvern and Sonja Mills from Redditch.

But Paolo is a case on his own.

Back home in Italy, in a village near the town of Casale Monferrato, he was infused with the poetic spirit by the most noble of motives love.

I fell very much in love with this girl, but I found it very difficult to tell her how I felt, he explained.

I discovered I could express myself much more easily in a poem to her.

This was in the early 1990s and Paolo was training to be an accountant at the time.

Sadly, the love affair didn't last, although that was nothing to do with the poetry.

Downhearted, Paolo headed for England.

There are too many accountants in Italy, he sighed. Too many of everything. There is much unemployment.

The purpose of the trip to England was three-fold.

To improve his English speaking and also, possibly, to continue his education and find employment.

In Italy everything is very chaotic and frenetic. Over here it is much more quiet. You don't seem to really stress yourselves.

Be that as it may, Paolo's move to York in 1996 was a good thing.

Back home, he had already won trophies for his poetry writing, but reading books as part of his language study gave him an urge to try writing in English.

In the beginning, the Italian influence made it very difficult to write good quality poetry in English, but then I managed to change my Italian mentality and this made my English poems improve enormously.

I asked just what this quantum leap of outlook involved. More fish and chips, less pasta, perhaps.

But no. It was apparently all down to the style of writing, more gentle phrases, less aggression.

Learning English I found the grammar very easy; it was the punctuation that was difficult, he explained.

It would be no exaggeration to say Paolo is in love with his poetry.

Poetry never lets me down. People do.

He has even written a poem to poetry entitled She is my Poetry.

It goes:

She has no face,

No eyes,

No Body.

She has no name,

No age,

No Voice.

She is my girl.

She is my poetry.

But that hasn't stopped his quest for the real thing, so far without success. Although I find it hard to believe a six foot tall, soft voiced romantic Italian in his mid 20s would have much bother in that area.

But I am shy," protested Paolo.

In that case his phone number is 01905 754826 if you want to give him a hand.

In the meantime, he is concentrating on two more poetry books, one in Italian and one in English.

So far, his work has been published in half a dozen countries and on the internet.

Love poems, as you might guess, are a speciality.