A WORCESTER poet and author who says you "can't kick a stone in Dublin without hitting a poet on the head" is dedicating himself to preserving modern Irish verse.

Paul Wheatley is creating the first national archive of Irish poetry in which poets such as Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney are filmed performing their work.

All 15 poets taking part feature on the Leaving Certificate syllabus, the Irish A-Level equivalent, and the finished DVD and video will be free to every school in Ireland.

"This will be the first time fine Irish poetry will be collected in an organised manner that will provide a snapshot of the contemporary Irish voice," said Mr Wheatley.

"The Irish are very proud of their literary heritage. Pubs are full of pictures of poets and named after poets. You can't kick a stone in Dublin without hitting a poet on the head."

The film will also include bilingual radio presenter Declan Kibird interviewing the poets, who include Michael Longley, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Eavan Boland and Paul Muldoon, who is flying from America just to film his segment.

Shooting is due to begin next Wednesday with Heaney and be completed in September.

"It's important to film it because of the way the poems are expressed and the way the face adds expression," said Wheatley, who was born and lived for 21 years in Pinkett Street, off Ombersley Road.

The 33-year-old began working on the project in September last year when he arrived in Dublin to begin a master's degree in creative writing at Trinity College.

The time away from England has also given Mr Wheatley a fresh perspective for his first novel, which he hopes will find a publisher by September.

Called Yum Yum, it's set in Worcester and tells of a worker in a pie factory who doesn't bother to buy a syndicate lottery ticket on the week their numbers come up.

"He tells the story in a pub based on the Swan with Two Nicks, which is a favourite pub of mine," said the author.