Biography

Aged 68 and retired now and living in South Wales, my career took me worldwide with the Royal Navy, I then worked as an engineer in a factory that made stationary staples and stapling machines, then a papermaker in a paper mill before joining the NHS at a local hospital as a Kitchen Porter, leaving 27 years later as a middle manager but ready to retire. I married in 1971 and we had our one son David in 1973, but I lost my wife Diana to Pancreatic Cancer in September 2016 just one week after David had married! Since retiring in 2010 I've enjoy writing short stories and poetry. Regarding the poetry, as well as general poems I like to write about events in my life. A short story that I entered into a competition last year (2016) was long listed but progressed no further in the competition but it did get published in an anthology of stories made up of the long listed works. So lovely to see it in print!

Samples

(A recent competition entry on the theme Milestones) Milestones in Life They say milestone are part of us living our life, A kiss by fifteen, at twenty seven it’s a wife! How did that huge leap happen, are we ready for this, In just twelve short years and all from a kiss. By thirty years old it’s a house and first child, With all this responsibility, life’s not so wild. But what’s in the future, well by thirty one It’s child number two, (I hope it’s a son!) But well before all of this life changing stuff Were fun milestones, of which there just weren’t enough, Pass driving test at twenty, and a first holiday with friends, Buy a car two years later, Best Man duties make amends For the fact that what’s to follow is work related and dreary, Thoughts of management at thirty four, well it’s making me weary! Thirty five is the year that I can be my own boss, A second house one year later, like the Mariner’s Albatross Around my neck like a mill-stone, I’m feeling quite queer For at thirty six years of age it’s two holidays each year! Thirty seven is the age I should earn forty grand, At thirty nine I let property, was any of this planned? It’s a long haul of consolidation, and it’s down to the wire For the next milestone’s at sixty when I should retire! I look back on my own lifetime, I’m aged sixty eight And realise all this is for nought, years are only a date. So you don’t have a house but your neighbour, he owns his, No need on this earth to keep up with the Jones’s. Live your life as you want to, let the years come and go, Take each day as it happens, be that fast, be that slow. For the very best milestones as this land you do roam Are the milestone that mark off those miles travelling home! A poem on Armed Forces Day, 24/06/2017 UK’s Armed Forces Day in Caerphilly And Veterans, each of us all recalls, That special feeling as we set out to march Through the town by the castle walls. Bands leads us through streets lined by such crowds That cheer us and clap as we pass, That feeling of pride returns to us all As eyes right, and we salute the top brass. The bands and the crowds carried us on As we tire and legs started to strain, We reach journeys end and step onto grass, We made it, and so well worth the pain! A Drum Head service lets us all rest awhile, We sing and pray to Him on high. Anthems are sung; are we now ready to get On with our day; aye, aye! There’s plenty to do and so much to see, And a Spitfire flies over the town, Bands do their thing, Field guns are run And T.S. Collingwood wins, hands down! The day's hotting up and I’m needing a drink, I head off to look for a cool beer, The day’s a success and I’m so proud to be A Navy Veteran, see you next year!

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.