Poetry

I have no background in the art of writing poems so many do not follow any formal structure. I enjoyed poetry/literature at school but took little interest later in life until the accident. The poems like the rest of my art are an expression of my journey and whether they conform is of little importance. They are what they are with a structure of their own. They are confronting, happy, sad, tragic, funny, poignant and questioning.

Initially my poems just happened, fell out word after word, furiously, sometimes waking me while I slept. Sometimes there would be 1 poem or 5 poems one after the other. It was strange, disconcerting and I wondered at their ferocity, need to be written and heard. For years it was an avalanche. Short and long poems. At the beginning they expressed all that was happening to and around me and the turmoil I found myself in. Of not understanding the consequences of what had happened to me. Of the doctor’s who either listened, were concerned enough to want to find a solution to the others who dismissed it all because all they saw in front of them was an insignificant female to whom they suggested openly that it was something I had conjured up, as though that was possible considering the strange and unexplainable episodes that were so out of left field that they puzzled many in the medical profession. How could I make something like that up and why the hell would I?

Many of these poems were desperate, cries for answers, black, full of pain, immense grief, loss of who I was, and tragedy, unknown repercussions of life, lost and all the sad and bitter tears that flowed as I wrote them. Tears that fall when I read them. Then there are the frivolous and the observations taken from what I saw around me, in cafes, on the street, an old lady having her hair done, amazing sunsets, the beach, leaves, people, travels overseas and the ones I really love about my Mum and Dad’s life, their struggles, strength and perseverance.

I have written over 300 poems of which a handful are included here. Many years ago I had compiled a book of 84 poems which I intended to have published but it didn’t eventuate. Now I have a fresh perspective and will instead put together several books with fewer poems that have a common theme and will include many of the ones I have written since then. Now in 2020 I have 3 books of poems with a total of 170 poems that I iwould love to have published. The challenge is to make it happen.

category poetry