Poetry IN MOTION

OETRY HAS ALWAYS been a treasured part of my life. I think I was born with a passion for words and their ability to create emotion, but it was my dad who made sure that poetry was part of that. Dad was a cultural sponge and he loved quoting Shakespeare as much as The Beatles lyrics – sometimes his efforts were greeted with blank looks or clichéd groans, but still he persisted. He also loved to write poems and regularly entertained us with his own amusing rhymes. With his encouragement, I was reciting the words to Don McLean’s song ‘Vincent’ when I was seven years old – a ‘highlight’ of family visits that felt both terrifying and thrilling. With everyone’s attention on me, I had the power to make time stand still… with ‘my’ poem at the centre