Biography

I am a poet and writer from Hertfordshire. My first collection, ‘River Lane’, was published by Arenig Press in 2018. I write as part of Poetry ID, a Stanza of the Poetry Society. My poems have been published in Envoi, iOTA, Prole, Dreamcatcher, The Lampeter Review, Picaroon Poetry, Skylight 47, An Algebra of Owls and the London Progressive Journal, amongst others. I was invited to read at the Ledbury Poetry Festival in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

Samples

Daddy, what did you do in the war? (a Brexit poem) They made a thunderstorm above the village green, the day we won the war. The church stayed unstruck, but constant rain inundated the roadsides. Our cars stuck in the verges, we barely made it to the station, but we left our mark alright. Midday was a blackout; we queued like soldiers with our hands placed on the shoulder of the man in front. We kept each other’s spirits up with tales of what we’d do if the enemy moved in next door. The rain came in waves but we waded through the filthy mud to make an ‘X’ with a blunt pencil and took it back for ourselves. We sat outside the English pubs that night, our warm beers buzzed by tiny flies. We picked out the foreign bodies, squeezed them with our fingertips, looked pleased with ourselves. Come the morning, we said, we’d see what we had done, what we’d created. The night was so hot, we kicked the sheets off, and slept like swastikas. Published in the London Progressive Journal 24th June 2016

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