Welcome to my website!
Here you will find photographs, poems, a small selection of previously unpublished short fiction and a few examples of my illustrated poetry. If you would like to leave a message or a comment you can use the comment forms beneath each of the photos in the Gallery, the Contact link or the Guestbook.
I am married to writer and photographer Simon John Harvey.
Site last updated: 07-05-24 & 12-05-24
1 poem added to the Poetry & Prose pages
Featured poem changed
2 poems added to the Guest Poets pages (Allan Smith)
2 poems added to the Guest Poets pages (Simon John Harvey)
Featured poem:
STRAIGHT FROM THE URALS
It’s the Russians send our weather
quite how they do it no one knows
their intent’s to make us suffer
with each bitter gale that blows
And they’re to blame for all the flooding
rumour says they’ve rain machines
that manufacture massive storm clouds
meteorological wetland dreams
See how they ruin summer picnics
festivals and weddings too
sending thunderbolts and lightning
like native skies would never do!
For they are evil weather-witches
and should the sun cast a warm spell
on the swamp-grown ponds and ditches
clouds soon block it — black as Hell
And future forecasts aren’t too hopeful
they’re predicting chilling stuff
days and days of gloomy drizzle
plus threats of hail if cold enough
We have our spies inside the Kremlin
snug in their undercover roles
who’ve discovered fiendish blueprints
for umbrellas full of holes
those sneaky Russians plan to sell us
it’s a dastardly cruel plot
to make us flap around like fishes
build an ark or steal a yacht
Once we’re soaked right through — half-drownded
weatherbeaten and forlorn
they will load their water pistols
challenge us come red sea dawn
But we’ll resist their tidal onslaught
don sou’westers and be brave
put our faith in mackintoshes
wear our wellies to the grave
It seems old Putin underrates us
or in his dotage lost the plot
our British spirit sails undaunted
so come on Vlad — what else you got?
***
Note to John Betjeman:
Slough’s not the only place that’s suffered —
there’s others similarly scuppered
wrecked on callous coasts of Time
all victims of town planners’ crime
they kill for profit — murder Art
so trash the past — destroy its heart
***
There are a lot more poems and some short stories on the 'Poetry and Prose' and 'Poetry for Kids' pages. Just click the button on the main navigation bar.
News:
My friend and guest poet, Geoffrey Winch, has just released his sixth collection of poetry - Velocities and Drifts of Winds published by Dempsey and Windle on 1st September 2020
Copies available from the publisher's website: dempseyandwindle.com RRP £11.00
Three poems from this collection: Flesh, Venus in Kensington Gardens and Sense Agility can be read on Geoffrey's guest page and are fine examples of the quality of this 93-page collection.
***
HORACE’S ODES
AND THE
MYSTERY
OF DO-RE-MI
Recently, and via chance correspondence with its author, Stuart Lyons, I was encouraged to buy a copy of the above book. It is both an acclaimed work of translation (a Financial Times book choice in 1996) and an engrossing detective story tracing the roots of lyric verse and the invention of the Do-Re-Mi musical scale. For those who read and/or write lyrical poetry, and ‘hear’ the musicality of poetic phrasing, it provides, perhaps, the confirmation that there is an historically documented trail that links the disciplines. It is a history lesson for all poets everywhere, and reassuring in the sense that Horace himself predicted his achievements would long outlive him. For a Roman songwriter and entertainer who died in 8 BC to have his works translated and read more than two thousand years later, this must surely have exceeded his wildest dreams.
Published by Aris & Phillips, an imprint of Oxbow Books, Horace’s Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi is available through Amazon.
***
Friend and guest poet Geoffrey Winch has published his fourth collection of poetry.
Alchemy of Vision is published by Indigo Dreams and can be purchased through their website
www.indigodreams.co.uk, also available via Amazon, Waterstones and other online book retailers.
Anyone wishing to buy a signed copy direct from the author can contact him as follows:
Geoffrey Winch, Dolphin Cottage, 65 Downview Road, Felpham, West Sussex PO22 8JA
Payment: Cheque value £9.45 (includes P&P) payable to GD Winch, please.
Themed around the Arts, this collection encompasses a wide variety of subjects and interpretations: large and small, famous and lesser-known. Presented rather like a gallery of eclectic exhibits, there is a lot to look at and much to learn. And there's something for everyone to relate to, to think about, and to take away with them.
Four poems from the collection now appear on Geoffrey's guest page: Jazz Stripes by a Water's Edge; Home-Hunter; Negatively Charged; Standing Lion. These can only give a flavour of this so- carefully presented volume, with its iconic cover image. A truly class act.
***
My poem Hope's Flame (see here) appears in SOUL FEATHERS — a poetry anthology published in February 2011 by Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd to aid the work of Macmillan Cancer Support.
The compilation contains the work of many internationally-known names including Carol Ann Duffy, Bob Dylan, Seamus Heaney, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah, Leonard Cohen and Sharon Olds alongside both established and first time poets, all brought together in support of the cause.
Based on the theme of Hope, and taking inspiration from lines written by Emily Dickinson —
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune -- without the words
And never stops at all”
— the poems in SOUL FEATHERS share, and compare, the common experience. The editors have done a superb job, and I am very proud to have a poem of mine in such good company.
SOUL FEATHERS is available from www.indigodreamsbookshop.com
Also from Central Books 0845 458 9910
ISBN 978-1-907401-36-7
Please buy this book, help Macmillan Cancer Support, and enjoy some wonderful poetry.
(Just click on the image below)
Random image
Here you will find photographs, poems, a small selection of previously unpublished short fiction and a few examples of my illustrated poetry. If you would like to leave a message or a comment you can use the comment forms beneath each of the photos in the Gallery, the Contact link or the Guestbook.
I am married to writer and photographer Simon John Harvey.
Site last updated: 07-05-24 & 12-05-24
1 poem added to the Poetry & Prose pages
Featured poem changed
2 poems added to the Guest Poets pages (Allan Smith)
2 poems added to the Guest Poets pages (Simon John Harvey)
Featured poem:
STRAIGHT FROM THE URALS
It’s the Russians send our weather
quite how they do it no one knows
their intent’s to make us suffer
with each bitter gale that blows
And they’re to blame for all the flooding
rumour says they’ve rain machines
that manufacture massive storm clouds
meteorological wetland dreams
See how they ruin summer picnics
festivals and weddings too
sending thunderbolts and lightning
like native skies would never do!
For they are evil weather-witches
and should the sun cast a warm spell
on the swamp-grown ponds and ditches
clouds soon block it — black as Hell
And future forecasts aren’t too hopeful
they’re predicting chilling stuff
days and days of gloomy drizzle
plus threats of hail if cold enough
We have our spies inside the Kremlin
snug in their undercover roles
who’ve discovered fiendish blueprints
for umbrellas full of holes
those sneaky Russians plan to sell us
it’s a dastardly cruel plot
to make us flap around like fishes
build an ark or steal a yacht
Once we’re soaked right through — half-drownded
weatherbeaten and forlorn
they will load their water pistols
challenge us come red sea dawn
But we’ll resist their tidal onslaught
don sou’westers and be brave
put our faith in mackintoshes
wear our wellies to the grave
It seems old Putin underrates us
or in his dotage lost the plot
our British spirit sails undaunted
so come on Vlad — what else you got?
***
Note to John Betjeman:
Slough’s not the only place that’s suffered —
there’s others similarly scuppered
wrecked on callous coasts of Time
all victims of town planners’ crime
they kill for profit — murder Art
so trash the past — destroy its heart
***
There are a lot more poems and some short stories on the 'Poetry and Prose' and 'Poetry for Kids' pages. Just click the button on the main navigation bar.
News:
My friend and guest poet, Geoffrey Winch, has just released his sixth collection of poetry - Velocities and Drifts of Winds published by Dempsey and Windle on 1st September 2020
Copies available from the publisher's website: dempseyandwindle.com RRP £11.00
Three poems from this collection: Flesh, Venus in Kensington Gardens and Sense Agility can be read on Geoffrey's guest page and are fine examples of the quality of this 93-page collection.
***
HORACE’S ODES
AND THE
MYSTERY
OF DO-RE-MI
Recently, and via chance correspondence with its author, Stuart Lyons, I was encouraged to buy a copy of the above book. It is both an acclaimed work of translation (a Financial Times book choice in 1996) and an engrossing detective story tracing the roots of lyric verse and the invention of the Do-Re-Mi musical scale. For those who read and/or write lyrical poetry, and ‘hear’ the musicality of poetic phrasing, it provides, perhaps, the confirmation that there is an historically documented trail that links the disciplines. It is a history lesson for all poets everywhere, and reassuring in the sense that Horace himself predicted his achievements would long outlive him. For a Roman songwriter and entertainer who died in 8 BC to have his works translated and read more than two thousand years later, this must surely have exceeded his wildest dreams.
Published by Aris & Phillips, an imprint of Oxbow Books, Horace’s Odes and the Mystery of Do-Re-Mi is available through Amazon.
***
Friend and guest poet Geoffrey Winch has published his fourth collection of poetry.
Alchemy of Vision is published by Indigo Dreams and can be purchased through their website
www.indigodreams.co.uk, also available via Amazon, Waterstones and other online book retailers.
Anyone wishing to buy a signed copy direct from the author can contact him as follows:
Geoffrey Winch, Dolphin Cottage, 65 Downview Road, Felpham, West Sussex PO22 8JA
Payment: Cheque value £9.45 (includes P&P) payable to GD Winch, please.
Themed around the Arts, this collection encompasses a wide variety of subjects and interpretations: large and small, famous and lesser-known. Presented rather like a gallery of eclectic exhibits, there is a lot to look at and much to learn. And there's something for everyone to relate to, to think about, and to take away with them.
Four poems from the collection now appear on Geoffrey's guest page: Jazz Stripes by a Water's Edge; Home-Hunter; Negatively Charged; Standing Lion. These can only give a flavour of this so- carefully presented volume, with its iconic cover image. A truly class act.
***
My poem Hope's Flame (see here) appears in SOUL FEATHERS — a poetry anthology published in February 2011 by Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd to aid the work of Macmillan Cancer Support.
The compilation contains the work of many internationally-known names including Carol Ann Duffy, Bob Dylan, Seamus Heaney, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah, Leonard Cohen and Sharon Olds alongside both established and first time poets, all brought together in support of the cause.
Based on the theme of Hope, and taking inspiration from lines written by Emily Dickinson —
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune -- without the words
And never stops at all”
— the poems in SOUL FEATHERS share, and compare, the common experience. The editors have done a superb job, and I am very proud to have a poem of mine in such good company.
SOUL FEATHERS is available from www.indigodreamsbookshop.com
Also from Central Books 0845 458 9910
ISBN 978-1-907401-36-7
Please buy this book, help Macmillan Cancer Support, and enjoy some wonderful poetry.
(Just click on the image below)
Random image
