Richard Meier obituary

My friend Richard Meier, who has died aged 55 of lung cancer, wrote poetry that reveals the extraordinary in the commonplace. He won the 2010 inaugural Picador poetry prize, leading to his first collection, Misadventure, being published in 2012. This was shortlisted for the Fenton Aldeburgh prize, and he went on to publish two further collections. He also worked in mental health policy, where he highlighted the adverse consequences of the NHS outsourcing care to the independent sector. His poems distil everyday observations with great beauty and precision. In Muscle Memory, Richard saw the world reveal itself to his young son, Wilf, through the flight of a Frisbee thrown on a beach. In the 12-week scan of his daughter, Matilda, he saw in her fingertips “ten of the tiniest bulbs, on”. Born in Bookham, Surrey, to Maureen (nee Parks), a secretary, and Robert Meier, a bank manager, Richard attended St John’s school in Leatherhead, where he excelled academically and musically, particularly on the piano. He joined the sixth form as a boarder at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester in 1986, making many lifelong friends, including me, and stayed on in the city to study music at the univ