Writing
Poetry is the discovery of possibilities in language, to express an encounter through the senses.
In my view, poetry is always the discovery of possibilities in language to express my encounter, through the senses, with the living environment; this encounter also includes a socio-political interaction; or in moments of quiet reflection, the act of remembering; (language in this context includes that of visual creative expression, poetry being also an accepted aesthetic in the visual arts.)
To express such sensual experiences in poetry is to subject my writing to the rigorous process of editing to produce a distillation of sorts. It is often during this process of crafting that intuition makes an entrance, and from which I get a great deal of pleasure.
Workshops
Creative writing and visual arts in an atmosphere that is fun and mutually inspirational.
I do facilitate workshops in creative writing and the visual arts. It is a way of sharing one’s artistic skills. My approach is based on the following principles: understanding the fundamentals in the practical use of materials; a playful, creative exploration of subject matter in relation to one’s chosen expressive material (including verbal and written languages.) And last, but not least, to encourage a workshop atmosphere that is fun and mutually inspirational.
POEMS
A sparrow and a crow
were perched in a willow
at the edge of a cornfield.
“Scarecrows,
they don’t scare me,”
cawed the crow.
“That may be so.”
said the sparrow;
“but, look again.
This one wears
a ginger cat
disguised as a hat.”
The sun came down,
furnaced the air,
severed clean
the cycle of seasons
with its blade of flame,
coloured everything
a scorched brown,
imposed silence
as a burden.
Extract from Lure of the Cascadura.
Published by Bogle L’-Ouverture.
In the beginning was carnival:
the pulse that animated the germ in the soup,
made sperm a triumphant amphibian,
stirred seed to shoot, burned green
in every tree and herb.
Extract from Behind the Carnival.
Published by Smith/Doorstop Books.
Bodies are fuelled with ale
in this fourteenth century interior;
a hug of warmth, and daylight
discreet through small windows,
the Welsh comfortable here at home.
Here, long ago, drovers quenched
their thirst for folk tales and beer.
It is now a respite for the shoot:
lusty men washing the kill from their
minds with good Denbigh brew.
Extract from ‘A Carib Being in Cymru’
Published by Cane Arrow Press.
After the beating by plantation sun,
the silencing of the drums, night was a comfort.
Your ancestral ways simmered in a pepperpot
in the dark, spiced with wild thyme, casareep.
Obeah was your faith.
You soothed monthly pains with zebapique,
drove evil spirits away
burning cacajab in coalpot fire.
Extract from ‘A Carib Being in Cymru’
Published by Cane Arrow Press.
Not easy to understand
the hard fettle of Hughes’ poetry
distilled from the Calder Valley,
where the sun keeps its distance
and the sky is a puckered tissue
greying everything.
Sometimes there is a blessing
in perceiving language in landscape:
Autumn in mid-Winter
with gamboge yellow, Indian red;
blue wood smoke lifting
amid scraggy sycamores,
their dark bloom of rooks’ nests.
Extract from ‘Voices From a Silk-Cotton Tree
Published by Smith/Doorstop Books
PUBLICATIONS
Full poetry collections
Dancing in the Rain,
Peepal Tree Press 2015
ISBN 9781845233013
A Carib Being in Cymru
Cane Arrow Press 2015
ISBN 978-0-9929388-2-6
No Apples in Eden
Smith/Doorstop Books 2009
ISBN 978-1-902382-99-9
Cook-up in a Trini Kitchen
Peepal Tree Press Ltd. 2009
ISBN 978 1 84523 082 1
Voices From A Silk-Cotton Tree
Smith/Doorstop Books 2002
ISBN 1-902382-41-2
Behind the Carnival
Smith/Doorstop Books 1994
ISBN 1 869961 54 4
The Sun Rises In the North
Smith/Doorstop Books 1991
ISBN 1 869961 32 3
Lure of the Cascadura
Bogle L’Ouverture Publications Ltd. 1989
ISBN 0 904521 48 6
Children’s Anthologies
A Caribbean Dozen
Edited by John Agard & Grace Nichols
Walker Books Ltd 1994
ISBN 0-7445-2172-6
Hello New
Edited by John Agard & Grace Nichols
Orchard Books 2000
ISBN 1 84121 621 6
Under The Moon and Over the Sea
Edited by John Agard & Grace Nichols
Walker Books Ltd 2002
ISBN 0-7445-3736-3
Rainbow World (Poems from many Cultures)
Edited by Bashabi Fraser and Debjani Chatterjee
Hodder Children’s Books 2003
ISBN 0 7502 4280 9
On A Camel to the Moon
Compiled by Valerie Bloom
Belitha Press Ltd 2001
ISBN 1 84138 247 7
One River Many Creeks
Chosen by Valerie Bloom
Macmillan Children’s Books 2003
ISBN 0 333 96114 5
101 Favourite Poems
Compiled by John Foster
Collins 2002
ISBN 0 00 713975 6
Can You Hear (Poems for Oxfam)
Edited by John Foster
Pan Macmillan Children’s Books 1992
ISBN 0 330 32503 5
Then and Now
Compiled by Fiona Waters
Evans Brothers Ltd 2001
ISBN 023752127 X
Did I Tell You?
131 poems for children in need
Edited by Nicky Gould and Vicky Wilson
Categorical Books 2010 for World Aid,org.uk
ISBN 978-1-904662-11-2
Not Only the Dark
Categorical Books 2011
Edited by Vicky Wilson
ISBN 978-1-904662-15-0
Adult anthologies
OxfordBook of Caribbean Verse
Stewart Brown & Mark McWatt
Oxford University Press 2005
ISBN 0-19-280332-8
Dance the Guns to Silence
Edited by Nii Ayikwei Parkes & Kadija Sesay
Flipped Eye Publishing 2005
ISBN 1-905233-01-9
Peace Poems
Crocus Books, Commonword Ltd 2003
ISBN 0-946745-43-9
Moving Voices (Black Performance Poetry)
Asher & Martin Hoyles
Hansib Publications Ltd 2002
ISBN 1 870518 64 0
IC3 The Penguin Of New Black Writing in Britain
Edited by Courttia Newland and Kadija Sesay
Hamish Hamilton 2000
ISBN 0-241-14047-1
Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Anthology
1989 – 1998
Aldeburgh Poetry Trust 1999
ISBN 0 953 5422 1 1
Nailing Colours (Poems of Rebellion)
Crocus Books, Commonword Ltd 1997
ISBN 0-946745-61-7
Overdraft
Albert Poets 1997
ISBN 0 9523966 37
Making Connections
Edited by Angela Topping
Stride Publications 1996
ISBN 1 900 152 06 1
Poems From The Read around
Manchester Poets 1995
Tarantula Publications 1995
ISBN 0 9514481 7 X
Draft No.2
Albert Poets 1995
ISBN 09523966 10
Kiss (Asian, African, Caribbean, Chinese Love Poems)
Crocus Books, Commonword Ltd. 1994
ISBN 0-946745-21-8
Excite The Mind
(Manchester Poetry Festival 1994 Official Anthology)
A K Press 1994
ISBN 1873 176 538
First Draft
Albert Poets 1994
ISBN 0 9523966 0 2
Chapman No. 61-2 Autumn 1990
International Festival of Writing
ISBN 0-906772-25-7
Black and Priceless
Crocus Books, Commonword Ltd 1988
ISBN 0 946745 45 5
The New British Poetry 1968 – 88
Paladin Grafton Books
ISBN 0-586-08765-6
Hair
Commonword 2006
ISBN 1-905778-01-5
Red
Peepal Tree Press Ltd 2010
ISBN 9781845231293
Sixty Poems for Haiti
Cane Arrow Press 2010
ISBN 978-0-9562901-3-7
Writing Yourself
Continuum International 2010
ISBN 1-905778-01-5
Out of Bounds, Bloodaxe Books 2012
Bloodaxe Books 2012
ISBN 978-85224-929-
Mentioned in the following Publications
Contemporary British Poetry (Essays In Theory and Criticism)
James Acheson and Romana Huk
University of New York Press 1996
ISBN 0-7914-2767-6 (pbk) 0-7914-2768-4
Dictionary of Artists in Britain Since 1945
David Buckman
Art Dictionaries Ltd. 1998
ISBN 0 953 2609 09
Who is Who in Art & Antiques
Who Is Who Publications Ltd 2002
ISBN 1-84378-001-3
Hayward Annual 1982 British Drawing
Arts Council Publication 1982
ISBN 0 7287 0324 6
Arts Council Collection Acquisitions 1989 – 2002
Published by Hayward Gallery Publishing 2003
ISBN 1 85332 230 X
Moving Worlds
Masquerade Caribbean Issue Vol.3 No.2 2003
School of English University of Leeds
ISBN 0 9540751 4 5
Responses: Intercultural Drawing Practice
Liverpool School of Art and Design (CAIR 2001)
ISBN 0952316137
Unterrichts – Materialien English
Stark Veriagesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
D-85318 Freising. Postfach 1852, Nachdruck verborten
Intermediate GNVQ Art & Design
Alan Smith
Macmillan Press Ltd. 1997
ISBN 0-333-66090-0
The Magic Exercise (Twelve Arts Education Projects)
Victoria Neumark
National Association of Art centres 1998
ISBN 0-948861-03-7
Northern Poetry Vol.1
Edited by Catherine Byron and John Lyons
Littlewood Press 1989
ISBN 0 946407 50 9
