about
poet
editor
queer
christian
trans ally
Self Portrait
An extravert trapped in an introvert,
a performer tied to a seat in the stalls,
a man in a woman inside a man,
non-binary gender-queer Russian doll.
A boy turned septuagenarian,
a sage in endless debate with a fool,
old man’s memory, child’s imagination,
watching Heartstopper, reading St Paul.
A Leo born in the Year of the Rabbit,
my lion heart has rodent habits.
I am a diamond dropped in a drain,
the flickering shadow of a steady flame,
half angel, half ape, a self-contradiction:
I suffer the human condition.
Seventy and still
taking the very first steps
to finding my self.
It's never too late:
each step is always the first
from where you are now.
'What I do is me: for that I came', Gerard Manley Hopkins
- 1971–2017 I worked with neurodiverse children and young people in the beautiful Camphill Movement and the ground-breaking Ruskin Mill organisation.
- 1990s Published The Cuppies collection of catoons.
- 2010 Writing regularly: poetry, flash fiction, short stories, longer fiction...
- 2012 Highly Commended in the Bridport Prize for Flash Fiction. Since then, long- and short-listed a few times.
- 2017 Masters in Creative Writing & Publishing at West Dean College.
- I'm so lucky to have a daughter and two sons – each way more talented and successful than their father – and two uniquely spirited granddaughters.
- Somehow, I gained and retained a small group of close friends and a partner who are honest with me and continue to put up with me.
- I'm a member of The Christian Community, gaining inspiration and wisdom also from other major religions and spiritual traditions, as well as from science.
- Working as a freelance editor and proofreader.