Maybe you are wondering about how I came to be interested in poetry and how I was inspired to write and put together “The Circle”. To answer the first question: I was inspired by two poets, Christopher Nolan and Davoren Hanna, who went to the C.R.C. (Central Remedial Clinic) where I also was a pupil for 7 years. Both had very severe cerebral palsy, which meant they couldn’t talk or move, yet, they still gave people a glimpse in to their thoughts of the World, through their poetry, they won awards for it and both brought out collections.
Around this time, my parents were going up to the North a lot to do research on two books that my dad was working on. So this was one of the inspirations around my poetry, as well it was the height of what became known as “The Troubles”, so I feared for their safety, particularly for my mom because she was just helping my dad with his books
So I was looking for a way to express my emotions on paper but it wasn’t until I was 15, when my mother was reading Christopher Nolan’s book “Under the eye of the clock”, that the seed that was sown a few years earlier, blossomed, and I began to think about writing as a career.
Also I was very interested in mom’s book about me. It had been required reading for nurses in the States. It was mom who suggested that people would be interested in my story from my point of view and I have been working on it ever since.
You may ask “Why is taking you so long?” and the answer is that I have been attending secondary school and college and had a few medical issues thrown in.
Personal assistants isn’t just used in the corporate world, but is used in the wider sense of helping somebody to lead their own lives and where the personal assistant is effectively the person’s arms and legs. In order to go to college I began using the services of PAs (personal assistants) to assist me in my studies.
One of my contemporaries wrote a large volume of poetry to celebrate her 70th birthday, I decided to mark my 40th birthday by bringing out a collection that is “The Circle”.
It also celebrates 25 years of writing poetry.
I hope I answered the questions at the beginning of this post effectively
I’m glad to be writing this blog even if it’s three years after the proposed idea took shape.