As a young child I loved rhyming poems, my favourite nursery rhymes were Lavender Blue, Sing a Song of Sixpence (it was a great narrative & you could act it out), and Oranges & Lemons (once again a game with chopping off their head – gruesome!). In junior school we had to learn poems by rote and a remember lots of them eg pieces from Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy, Keats, Shelley & odd ones like Walter De La Mare. My favourite was The Pied Piper of Hamelin because I was chosen to be the narrator while classmates acted out the story. This was a much better end of year event than the usual nativity play which, with blonde hair, meant I was always doing the “Fear Not for behold…” to the Shepherds, desperately wishing I had black hair and could wear the blue Mary dress.
At grammar school, we ‘did’ a Shakespeare every year and I fell in love with each play and later the sonnets. When I got my first school job pay packet I bought a complete Shakespeare for 11s/6d. My second book was John Lennon’s first book of poetry. I loved Art it was my favourite subject followed closely by Chemistry and English. I read life stories about Artists and somehow went into the histories of their lives. I was obsessed with Italy (still am) and at one stage started reading Dante!
I tended to read poems about people, ideas and love as most adolescents do. My favourite poem for years and still is one of my favourites today was A Darkling Thrush by Hardy. I liked melancholy and misery. I rode my bike to outlying villages and would often read poetry. The Great War Poets were introduced to me by my Grandad. I always felt so sad for poets like Owen killed too soon. I publicly read ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’ once a year (this year in National Science Week: Theme Chemistry). Unlike WWII, which I thought as a child had a worthy purpose; WWI seemed such a waste of lives for no reason.
Loved ‘doing’ poetry in voices so enjoyed reading Robbie Burns with Scots Nan, Dylan Thomas with a Welsh neighbour and loved the Liverpuddlian poets. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was my favourite beat poet because I could understand him.
Would you say your childhood and teenage experience of poetry has had a distinct influence on how you write poetry now, and why?
Yes. I often write poetry in the darker end of the spectrum. I want to write about sad subjects but try not to be maudlin or pathetic. I still like narrative and telling War/political stories (Seasons of Terror). I write trying to evoke empathy for even the enemy, to get people to imagine or experience a situation and think beyond the easy black and whites of life. I like internal rhymes and rather than end rhymes (Hot Boys), but I love trying to work out Hardy’s complex rhymes and practicing form poetry (rarely try to publish that). A long project is sonnet matching Shakespeare.
I like visual language but consciously try to expand that by writing in other sensory language. I write about Art and Science. I’ve done a series of poems on the etchings of Otto Dix (fighting against Wilfred Owen I always imagine), and poems on the retrospective exhibition of John Bracks. I enjoy
I love challenging my self to write about Chemistry, Physics & Science and always write poems to perform at RiAus.
Who is another poet whose poetry you admire and why?
In Australia, Dorothy Porter – feminist, story telling, science interested, history interested and able to work in such a huge variety of Arts fields.
Jules Leigh Koch and Aidan Coleman are both brilliant imagist poets who write tight, concise, strong verse, each with a distinct and powerful voice. Their word economy amazes me.
How would you summarise one of your poems in one paragraph?
Turkish Smyrna is about child labour and the miserable lives children live making beautiful carpets
How would you describe the appeal of this poem to readers?
I am trying to evoke empathy for the children and understand that beautiful rugs in their lounge rooms come at far greater cost than they imagine
Could you share a stanza or small section of this poem?
This carpet - a Turkish Smyrna-
is made with Gordian knots,
tied by the fine fingers of a child
tied to a loom
by a thin, pale leg.
How would you describe the contribution this stanza or small section makes to the poem?
It introduces the carpet and the repetition lines which the poem returns to like a sad hopefully poignant refrain.
Would you describe your poetry primarily as narrative, thematic, character portrait, or how would you describe your poetry?
It can be any of the above. I like story telling, but I like odd quirky ones. I like characters but strange ones.
Do you read your poetry aloud to people? If so, how would you describe the size and response of your listening audiences?
I read to my family – responses are mixed, but brutally honest.
But I regularly read at FSP meetings (up to 120 people per meeting) and perform in a variety of venues, Festivals, Libraries, Art Gallery, even the Royal Show! I usually do a couple of serious one followed by a light one. I usually get a very positive response. I can read clearly and ‘perform’ my work. Many poets who write really well get a negative response at FSP because they read in a flat boring tone, or race through with nerves or refuse to use the mic. properly.
I love reading at the Art Gallery and at RiAus when FSP does crossovers of Science & Poetry.
A small low vision group were my most attentive audience ever. I read them poems about my foreign travel poems + funny observation poems + poems about sea/ sky/ seasons.
Do you write groups of poems to form collections? If so, how were the poems connected in your most recent collection?
I have several books planned around quite specific themes. My first book was about shared humanity & facing death/loss (sorry to be so glum! – not really)
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