Chris Bainbridge

Biography

Tyneside-born, Bury-based Chris is a poet and activist who has been performing regularly on the North West scene since at least 2010 - possibly earlier, he can't actually remember - although he has written poetry and lyrics since his teens in the 1970s, being first published in local paper The Prestwich And Whitefield Guide when he was 12. Somehow managing to avoid becoming a member of The Fall, Chris was next published in Sheffield University magazine Arrows in 1977. Chris has spent most of his nigh-on 40-year career in health and social care services. His previous roles include ambulance driver, homelessness resettlement worker and residential social worker. He has also had brief stints as a factory labourer, customs officer, disc jockey, and by accident for one night only, a roadie for rock icons Motorhead. He has also signed the Official Secrets Act (but is not allowed to tell you...). For ten years from 1995 he produced and edited Bury FC fanzine The Hatchet. Now a grandfather, Chris's poetry reflects his varied life and work experiences as well as his passion for natural justice and political change. He has recently facilitated poetry workshops with groups of stroke survivors, with the aim of enhancing their self-esteem and wellbeing, exploring the transformational potential of poetry. Chris’s first poetry collection “The Bride Wore Blue” was published by EmmasAtticPublishing in December 2016, and a collaborative collection co-written with Eve Nortley “Love And Lust In Bury And Rochdale” came out in February 2017. Chris and Eve’s eagerly-awaited follow-up “Driftwords” was published by PreeTa Press in December 2019 and is now available. Chris and Eve founded the Wild Words Writers’ Collective in March 2017, later being joined by Gordon Zola, Emma Kendall-Lea and Steve Sutton. Chris and the other members of the group are available (individually or in any combination) to facilitate writing and performing workshops, give talks and presentations, or perform their spellbinding original pieces of poetry and fiction for your group. For details please email Chris - hatchet_bury@yahoo.co.uk – or contact via his Facebook page “Chris Bainbridge Poet”, where you can also find examples of his poetry and original photography.

Samples

Northumbria In the immigrant footsteps of Ida The First Flame-Bearer, I dream in electric warrior tones, I’ll keep you warm when October pitches up Dragging its heels and hollow keel and weary bones towards November’s beach, And we hear symphonies in a silent sea’s yearning reach. A shoreline fire, glowing tongues Lindisfarne licking, charcoal sticks flickering beneath northern lights. In our winter’s shared night we navigate by touch And whether near or far we are ever connected like distant, timeless stars on an unlit stairway to Valhalla. And we know,you and I, how to see in the dark.

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

Blog entries by Chris Bainbridge

Hartshead (26/03/2021)

Extra Time (12/06/2019)

Signals (09/06/2019)

Our Chains Are Invisible But No Less Real (14/01/2019)

Hansel (09/01/2019)

Celtic Warrior Princess (07/01/2019)

The Long Notes (30/12/2018)

Tempted (06/12/2018)

Donor (02/12/2018)

Essence (24/11/2018)

Read more entries by Chris Bainbridge…

Blog link: https://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/chrisbainbridge