About

Welcome!

This website includes seven original published books of poetry and one play. All are available to read or download for free.  In additon, there is one video poetry book (Uncollected) which is available on YouTube. I hope that you enjoy them.

Why free?

I have been the recipient of a number of acts of kindness and undeserved luck along the way. I hope this website goes some way to repaying that good fortune. It now seems to be the norm to try to ‘monetise’ material. I have no problem with that, people have to earn a living. However, I have always written poetry for the joy of it.  I don’t rely on poetry for income (luckily) and it’s nice to be able to spread the word. Hence, I am not selling anything on the website, nor will you see any paid advertisements. All content can be read for free.

Context is everything

I usually write poems within a specific context and all the published books are structured around a theme. You will find notes relating to this on the individual book pages. Regarding context more generally, I wanted to present all eight published books together to represent a complete body of work. In addition, I have now published on video poetry book on YouTube. The poems in this book tend to vary more in terms of theme. Links to this book, and the text of these poems, are on the YouTube page.

I suppose I am not a typical poet (if such a thing exists). My background is in science. I am not interested in literary pyrotechnics and attempt to use simple words in everyday use whenever possible. I don’t know where the quote first originated, but to use small words magically has been a guiding principle. Similarly, I will always jettison perfect grammar in favour of language as it is commonly spoken.

I write poems that I want to read. There. I said it. The poetry police are on the way.

Perceptions of poetry

Poetry can be perceived as being elitist and intellectual, which is a shame. I dislike covers of poetry books which are obviously aspiring to that ideal, which rarely have anything to do with the content. Rather, I look towards the album covers of my youth which seemed to be part of, and even augment, the creative product. With that in mind, I have enjoyed designing the covers for my books. I hope they compliment the content.

There can also be a perception that poetry needs to be somehow profound. I fall well short of that aspiration. I am reduced to describing two magpies roaming my street in a poem called Slow Saturday (in The London Plane).

Some final thoughts

I believe all creative art involves some degree of personal testimony and the crafted communication of that vision. If you don’t understand a poem, it’s the poet’s fault not yours. Oops. The poetry police are knocking on the door now. And they sound angry.

I hope that you enjoy the poems on the website. However, if you don’t, please don’t feel the need to let me know. No, really. It’s OK not to tell me.