I've been in the room when people who were clearly comfortable talked about 'the poor' and it was invariably an uncomfortable situation for me. Conversations about 'the poor' tend to involve talking about poverty itself as though it is intrinsic to certain people; an unavoidable, natural state, to be bemoaned or to be pitied.

Some of us are economically disadvantaged. There's no greater indicator for wealth than being born into an affluent family. Some of us are disadvantaged by poor health, neurodiversity, race, gender, sexual identity, learning difficulties, lack of opportunity, exploitation…

That some people live in poverty has a great deal to do with the choices made by everyone else. Poverty should not be considered as solely the responsibility of those who find themselves economically disadvantaged.

As this is an issue I write about a lot, I'm thinking at the moment about how to sharpen up my own language use. I need to change how I talk about being poor and the implications of poverty to make it more explicit that poverty is not something I think most people afflicted by should be held responsible for. I'm going to talk more about being economically disadvantaged, because I think that's more useful.

For me, being on the bard path means a dedication to really thinking about language. I'm constantly trying to improve. I'm alert to the implications of how we use words and phrases and I'm constantly trying to do a better job of using words - to be more accurate, and to be more just.