This collection of poetry includes works from the 1970s up to the present day and those poems which have factually based themes were historically true in the period they were written as in Sarajevo.
The reader will find on these pages a revealing eclectic mix of poems that are autobiographical, nostalgic, environmental, occasionally lyrical, reflective and thought provoking. The poetic style varies throughout and placing the work alphabetically allows the reader to discover things in a more spontaneous way.
Born in the 1950s, growing up in Merseyside, training at the Laird School of Art and as a photographer in Liverpool, the north west of England is a special place with hints to nostalgia that can easily be identified in poems such as I Dreamed of Going to Sea.
As a photographer, capturing the environment’s light or bleakness has always been a fascination and likewise with poetry whether it’s Ghosts of the Atlantic or the anti war allegory The Punt Gunner there is something visual about verse that can make a stark or abrasive subject appear serene.
Blake Morrison (poet and author) once interviewed me for a feature in the Sunday Independent Magazine and I ended up being a real life character in one of his stories in the book “Too True”. This taught me more than ever that real people have a place in poems and nearly all of those in my work truly existed like Lawrence and Mr Moon.
So as photography frames an image, poetry transforms the mind and whilst we think we see and understand what we see, the mystery and intrigue are sometimes at the fringes of the scene; so when we look at a beautiful panorama we see in clear shades of blue skies or green landscapes but right in the corners or the edge of the spectrum lies violet, barely discernible but there just the same. This latest edition features a prologue and epilogue using the words of Nick Drake used by kind permission of his estate Bryter Layter.
