Having spent a number of years focussing on scholarly research, I took the decision in early 2011 to embrace the creative urges that I had been long suppressing and to make a serious attempt at my own original work, which had been bubbling under the surface for some twenty years. My first attempts at poetry were made in around 1997-8, but other work and thought overtook these early explorations. In 2008 I started keeping a notebook, and it became apparent that I was gathering ideas and observations for which the only possible home might be poetry. Between 2011 and 2013 I slowly forged some of these ideas - as well as many new ones - into my first real poems. Some of these came together to form my first short pamphlet collection, Fulcrum, which was published in a limited fine press edition on 1 June 2014. Click here to find out more about Fulcrum.
For me, poetry is about intensity of thought. It is a dense, laden form that seeks to explore and cast light upon thought and ideas. It is a form to which you must submit and wholly lose yourself; a medium that explores the music of language. This, at least, is what I strive to achieve.
A poem is often the product of many weeks and months, sometimes across spans of years, from first idea to 'finished' poem (if ever it is finished - sometimes certainly so; sometimes not). A poem is the product of many pages and sheets of paper, from first pencilled ideas and first draftings to computer transcription, numerous print-outs worked in ink or pencil updated and reprinted, tweaked again and again, until they are crafted and honed to my satisfaction. For better or for worse. Does this compromise the spontaneity and freshness of a poem? I hope not, but only the reader can judge.
