Biography

I think you should take poetry seriously but never yourself. It's important to let others know you're enjoying what you are doing or they never will. Since my early retirement I read (I'm a member of the Poetry Library in London), write and perform (in the Poets Cafe in Reading and the Den of Voice in Guildford). In addition I founded the Westy Poets (which meet every second Tuesday of the month at the West End Centre in Aldershot) where I set a series of exercises we can do together.

Poems will be/have been published in: Nth Position, the Reater, South, The Interpreter's House, Stride, Seam, Other Poetry +

Samples

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD BE CHEESE


the nights in my bed dreaming
of climbing mountains of cheese
the days breathing in the smell of cheese
the reaching of a stall selling cheese

the heavy trays filled with varieties of cheese
the glass counter overflowing with cheese
the feeling I should have a square of cheese
the gratitude to the man who says try some cheese

the decision to have a taste of cheese
the anticipation of biting through the cheese
the amazement when the flavour is of cheese
the way I can't help buying some cheese

the surprise when I'm holding a box of cheese
the simple act of admiring the cheese
the perfect accompaniment to cheese is cheese
the bringing out the knife and cutting the cheese

the crumbling and dissolving in my mouth of cheese
the fuelling of my imagination by cheese
the taking of my soul by cheese
the finding of my inner cheese

the desire to write about cheese
the need to say a body is like cheese
the need to say I love your body
because it's tinted with gold like cheese

STARBUCKED
3 April 2007

Next to Penelope Cruz, ordering an espresso
peaked with the bleakness of foam, is Freya
the Norse goddess of love and fertility.

She looks well even if her chiselled features
are not a patch on those of Venus.
You should go over and ask her

where have all the old gods gone?
What's happened to Odin, Thor
and all the Giants?

But no. You'll ignore her when you leave.
Continue shopping for flowers
and chocolates for your girlfriend.

You'll get home in time for the News
and find outside your front door
a couple of actors talking about end times

and how it's their destiny
to die in the final battle
between order and chaos.

THEY WILL BE REMOVED
-tannoy announcement at Bridgend train station

Do not leave lines unattended,
like the two I dreamt of this morning,
or they will be removed.

Make sure you use a notebook
and carry it with you always.
Do not leave lines unattended.

As for the other poems you've written
and don't want to forget, memorise them
or they will be removed.

You have been warned
they could even be blown up
if you leave the lines unattended.

Pay attention to your poems
don't leave then in a drawer
or they will be removed

and the world will never see them
but then that's what they deserve.
Do not leave lines unattended
or they will be removed.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.

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