I wrote my first poem over 30 years ago and followed that with ongoing creative and journal entries. Lack of focus and preoccupation with everyday life saw this early work lost and the practice of writing only picked up quite by accident when writing a panel for a promotional brochure. This ended up in poetic form and that little trickle has brought me to here.

Now I constantly note, I sketch fragments and write almost daily. I develop ideas/drafts, experiment with form and study poetry and linguistic guides. My inspiration is often drawn from a single word or a fleeting image that is skewed in some way, that jumps out unbidden, often unwanted.

I remember fragments of poetry from my teens though mostly as negative repetitive reinforcement not as a thing of beauty, a place of escape or a taste of a specific time, place and emotion. I have been writing almost in secret for 8/9 years and it is largely due to the encouragement of a few people that I decided to 'publish' almost all of my work, up to the end of 2002, via the internet.

I have a special regard and admiration for the poet scorned or persecuted in their lifetime, among these are the Russian, Marina Tsvetaeva, the Czech poet Vladimir Holan and the Monaghan man, Patrick Kavanagh. I take only joy from the recognition awarded to Irish poets John Montague and Seamus Heaney and like many many thousands of people globally I continue to gain great pleasure and inspiration from their poetry.

I am particularly interested in the Russian Acmeist movement and especially the great poet, Anna Akhmatova. I can say that I had not lived until I read these lines from her poem Requiem:

"In those years only the dead smiled,
Glad to be at rest:
And Leningrad city swayed like
A needless appendix to its prisons."

My focus is on the immediacy of poetry, the emotion or reaction consigned to paper, perhaps sometimes simple or less than coherent but indicative of the moment of love or hate or sadness or the mix of conflicting emotions that were the inspiration.

I have emerged from scribbling in the shadows to sharing each new poem and poet I discover with all who have a passing interest. A little of what I write I like and often 'recipients' of my poems express genuine appreciation......... what more can be expected in these transient times.