The road to here has been long and winding to misuse someone else’s poetry. I was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in case there is another one somewhere. My first eight years were pretty perfect until The Troubles broke out in 1968, much to the aggravation of my Protestant loyalist father. From there things went belly-up as the killing started and my father took to drink. My teens were saved by rugby, being able to holiday in London with my sister, the library and eventually poetry, which I discovered as a way of getting toxic thoughts out and attracting girls at parties.
For much of my formative life and early adulthood I was a pretty messed up human who drank too much, feared everything and everyone and carried around a huge angry chip on his shoulder. I went to university in Reading England and studied history and sociology before heading off to Hamburg Germany via France.
I hhave been here now for over 40 years and have had numerous apartments, jobs - English teacher, translator, proofreader, actor, bookshop assistant etc. but now work for a university as an English teacher with a focus on politics and how warfare is depicted in the media. I still write poetry on a purely amateur basis out of love of words and communication and as part of that human spirit that requires we create things of beauty we can share. For refenece see Nick Cave’s wonderful recent interview with Stephen Colbert. I have not published any poetry and have only ever submitted one poem. I am sadly lacking ambition and discipline in writing and self-marketing.
The greatest joys in my life remain my family - I have 2 wonderful grown-up children and three fabulous grandchildren a marvelous wife and several extraordinary ex-partners and acting, which I still do as often as I can.
It is amazing to have ‘friends’ out there around the world sharing poetry and empathy and respect, three things the world definitely needs and can be found in abundance on this site.