The University of the Third Age is an amazing organisation.

Not only does it provide education and activities for thousands of older people, it’s also run by those who have entered the third age themselves – people like Huddersfield poet Doris Corti, who is 89-years-old and still teaching.

But then Doris is no ordinary octogenarian – and the Huddersfield and District U3A is fortunate indeed to have her on board. A published and award-winning writer, with several books of her own as well as inclusions in anthologies, she’s the author of a text book, Writing Poetry, that’s still on the reading list for creative writing students at the University of Manchester and a go-to volume for budding poets.

This year she’s seen her latest collection of poems, Kingfisher & Other Things, published by Scriptora, an arm of the Society of Women Writers & Journalists, of which Doris is a vice president. It’s a book that she says was inspired by Huddersfield and the village of Lindley, where she now lives.

Doris, who writes under her maiden name, is a Londoner by birth but came to West Yorkshire from Cambridgeshire seven years ago to join her eldest son Jeff Stump. She has been both delighted and surprised by Huddersfield’s rich cultural life, of which she is now a part.

She’s a member of the well-known Albert Poets group, which now meets at The Sportsman, and has been teaching a U3A poetry class for six years.

While suffering from macular degeneration and blind in one eye, Doris has an irrepressible spirit and a refusal to let her years stand in the way. She still writes a regular column on poetry for the Writing magazine, makes school visits and is invited to give poetry readings.

Poetry, she says, is an oral artform: “It’s quite different when the poet is reading; you hear the poem as it should be,” she explained.

Doris has written books on the personal experiences of being a carer and a grandparent. She was the sole carer for her late husband Arthur Stump, who developed Alzheimer’s disease in the latter years of his life and died 15 years ago.

Her work Lavender Blues, which was endorsed by the Alzheimer’s Society, captures the emotional rollercoaster of caring. “It was,” she says “a hellish time. But I loved him and still miss him. We would have been married for 69 years this year.”

Given that age has conferred a wealth of experiences, does Doris now find it easier to write poetry?

“No, if anything, it’s harder,” she says. “Because you are more aware and stricter with yourself. Poetry seldom comes in one go.

“People often ask me ‘where do you get inspiration?’ and I’ll say quite often it’s something that you hear or see. I wrote one poem, Bag Lady, for example, after I’d been sitting in a cafe in London and this woman came in and started rambling. She asked ‘Who is the Messiah?’

“Another, in the new book, Breaking Bread, is about caring. It’s about the fact that when you are a carer all you want is love and to feel cared for and looked after yourself. I had 12 years of caring.”

Doris, who has two sons, three grandchildren and two great grand-children has been a writer all her life. Although she left school at 15 “with an awful lot to learn about poetry” she set about reading as widely as she could and joined the London Writers Circle. She worked in a publishing house and went to evening classes to get her A levels.

She has a couple of top tips for those eager to pen poetry: “Read a lot of poetry – contemporary or classics, it doesn’t matter. And if you get an idea, jot it down on a piece of paper or a notebook – you will forget it if you don’t. And be observational. Poetry is observation, imagination and creation.” Her new book sold out on publication but is available from Lindley Library along with a number of her other titles.

Her U3A class on writing poetry starts again in September. For details of how to enrol – and a prospectus of other classes – visit huddersfieldu3a.org or call 01484 308482. The U3A has five literary courses and everything from art classes to cycling groups.

Green by Doris Corti, from Kingfisher & Other Things

The day jump starts

pours liquid blues as far as the horizon,

a surprise gift. Time warp in a busy schedule,

green taste of summer

A walk in the park, excursion of delight.

Pleasant gabbling of birds,

sequined fish vibrate water in a pond.

Bees zoom their flight through polyanthus

and lilac trees. Purple iris, sentinels

along paths, where clematis and roses

burst from buds.

A savouring of here and now,

sunlight through leaves, scent of conifers

and spindly birch. A bagman lolls along a bench,

I join him to collaborate in idleness.

The air is cushion soft, this day

is all my universe.