MY POETRY

     Many poets write books for the poetry world, not for the ordinary reader – not for the average Joanna or Joe who thinks they don’t know what poetry is about.
     I write poems about ordinary life, about popping down the shops, buying new shoes, the difficulties buying a bra or does God like football. About life, death and anything in between that pops up.  I write for you and me - poems that are easy to understand and resonate with a wide audience. 
     You don’t have to be a literary critic to appreciate my poems – you can just say – Oh yes I like that one, or Oh I felt like that when ... or Oh I’m not alone then, it happened to someone else.. or even Oh no! I don’t like that one... whatever your response, it’s all fine by me.

My Poetry Collections

Dolly-Mix--poetry-collection

click for link to  buy the paperback on Amazon
Some of these poems have been published in various anthologies, magazines
over the last fifteen years. 
Most of them have been performed many times in different performance poetry venues.


This collection includes the following poem -

Bulawayo

In the playground
we compare notes
to place ourselves.
Where you born then?
WatfordHarrowLondon
English places.

I wait. Holding back.
Then I say it, rolling the vowel sounds
slowly on my tongue,
casual like.
Bul-a-way-o.
What?  Where’s that?
Low key, shrug.
Africa.
Africa?
Wow.  Then silence.
Staring at me. No one can top that.

I walk off slowly, nonchalant like.
I don’t know what Bul-a-way-o is.
I know it’s in Africa
They tell me nothing about it.
Too busy with the present,
to bother about that past time in Africa.

I don’t care, I’m different, special,
‘cos of Bul-a-way-o.
Its mine, my place,
I came from there.
No one else does, ever.

In the album, a black and white picture
of small me on some steps in a garden
and an ‘arma-dillo’, strange creature,
,in Bul-a-way-o.

I like the name
Bul-a-way-o,
where I was born.
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Heart Broke
All of the poems in this book were written by me over the last 20 years.  Most people have experienced loss or grief due to a relationship ending, no matter how it came about. This collection of poems is for you.  All the poems are about the end of whichever relationship I was in at the time.  It was always painful and felt like no one could understand or appreciate the pain of it all.  It always seemed questionable how I would survive... but somehow I did, I had to.


One of the poems -


A Shell Explodes

In your head a shell explodes
when it’s over
and a small piece of shrapnel
flies into the heart

and you curl up in a foetal position

pain radiating through your body
to your fingertips
and you go through the motions
of your life, smiling and talking
as if you were alive
and people think you're ok 
but you know that deep down
inside
you're dead.

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PERFORMANCES
I'm a performance poet - I really enjoy performing.  Here's some links to a few of my past performances -

Link to June 26th 2016 Finchley Literary Festival
Poetry and music night at Cafe Buzz in Finchley

Link to a performance in May 2015 at the 
Finchley Literary Festival Poetry Palooza, Cafe Buzz

and a few others from previous years:

May 2014 Finchley Literature Festival

Performance for Gold Dust magazine
4 poems May 2015
for the 'Liquid Gold' poetry anthology at The Lucas Arms, Kings Cross, London.

Poetry and Music eve at the   Big Green Bookshop 22/11/13








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