About

What’s it all about? I really dont know…I’ve not yet worked it out!

Well I suppose this page should maybe be a little more about me. I was born and raised in a leafy suburb of London in the UK. I had a very happy childhood and quite enjoyed school even though I was never a high-flyer academically. I dont even recall writing any poetry at school, that came later when I started composing little ditties to personalize birthday cards for family and friends.  As birthday milestones got bigger so did my odes! That then led to me writing poems for other occasions including farewells to work colleagues whenever I changed jobs. Talking of jobs, I’ve had a varied career. After leaving school I worked as a draughtsperson for about nine years, then as a croupier for a year and went from there into my first job in social care. I qualified as a social worker in 1989 and have worked in adult mental health services since the year 2000.

Okay so back to the poetry

Pictopoetry Banner from the web site.No formal training, obviously, and have always considered my propensity to spout poetry as a knack as opposed to a talent.  Just something that is an enjoyable means of expression inspired by people and events around me rather than anything to be taken too seriously.  And so it was never anything regular, just as and when. Just as and when that is, until a colleague’s photography project to mark World Mental Health Day back in 2006.  That web site, imagesandwords.org.uk and the whole project, inspired me to write a poem about mental health.  For some reason that gave me the urge to want to write more poetry on broader topics and in searching for an outlet I came across The Next Big Writer – thanks to Google!

Having found what I was looking for I was soon up and running with The Next Big Writer and within a few weeks of joining, I just so happened to find myself entering a very difficult time in my personal life. TNBW became my world of escapism; I literally went into poetic overdrive posting poems on all sorts of subjects. And then a few months into membership I just decided to have a go at forming a figure with and around a poem. I really don’t know why, but that was it.  I was hooked! Some reviewers refer to my poems as ‘pictograms’ or ‘pictographs’ or  ‘concrete poems’  but I much prefer ‘pictopoems’ because that suggests they are pictures of poems, which is what they are to me. Some have also kindly urged me to seek publication. Well I’ve never gotten around to doing so, but now have a way to put my poems on public show!

And so now I have my very own website

Female eyes.  These are Janorama's

PictoPoetry – Whoopee!  Yes my pictopoems are now here for all to see but as for where my ‘knack’ for producing them comes from I really have no idea. That said, art was my favourite subject at school and whilst I was never much of a painter I was reasonably good at pencil drawings. The starting point for any poetic prose is in the mind, I suppose, and so maybe my poems come from my mind’s eye or maybe my eyes are in fact the key to how I draw with my poetry. Well I really don’t know, but for anyone who might be curious to know, here is a snippet of me…no, not a picto but a photo of my eyes as you can see!

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