The Independent today launches our innovative new poetry column, featuring an original poem each week by acclaimed writer Frieda Hughes. Hughes, a poet, painter and author of children’s books, will publish a new poem each Friday, starting with an ode to nature, animals and writing itself. The daughter of the former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes , and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and poet Sylvia Plath , has written eight poetry collections and is a former judge of the National Poetry Competition. In April this year, she published her first memoir, George, a love story about bringing up a magpie. In an interview with The Independent , she revealed how adopting the baby magpie had helped her navigate the highs and lows or her life.