The Perfect Song For … writing poetry (or anything else worthwhile)

What song or what kind of song gets you into the mood or helps you appreciate the process of writing? What inspires? Is it the words? Is it the melody? Is it the longing for madness, the desire to lose yourself in the wonderful frightening world of imagination? 

What gets you into that “zone” where you lose your inhibitions and willingly succumb to the scary yet invigorating spell of Apollo and Dionysus, without drugs or alcohol?  

In this podcast we not only discuss and present some suggestions, but we also have the perfect guest to tell us more about the world of poetry and divine inspiration: renowned Cape Town poet and author Finuala Dowling.



Dowling has spent much of her life teaching language and words, first English at Unisa and UCT. These days she teaches creative writing from her Muizenberg home, as well as online. 

She has six volumes of poetry to her name, including Pretend You Don’t Know Me, which came out in 2019 and brings together some of her most loved poems. She is also the author of six novels, including the “fees must fall”-inspired satire Okay, Okay, Okay. 

The songs we chose are: 

My Father – Nina Simone

Frogs – Nick Cave

Series of Dreams – Bob Dylan

Search and Destroy – Iggy & The Stooges

Maybe Not – Cat Power 

Come On Up to the House – Tom Waits 

Beautiful in Beaufort Wes – Theuns Jordaan

Ain’t It Strange – Patti Smith

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised – Gil Scott-Heron. DM

You can listen and subscribe to ThePerfectSongFor … podcast about the perfect song on Apple podcasts, Spotify and iono. Full versions of the songs are in Spotify and Apple playlists; [email protected]

Contact the hosts of the podcast or email us your suggestions and alternatives at [email protected] 

You can also follow the hosts on X: @perfectsongfor Insta: #perfectsongfor 

Tim Cohen is the business editor of Daily Maverick. Fred de Vries is an author, writer, journalist and South Africa correspondent for Elsevier Magazine and De Groene Amsterdammer. He writes regular music columns for Platenblad in the Netherlands and Vrye Weekblad in South Africa.