Welcome! Explore My Creations & Discover Your Favourites.
This is the central home for all of my creative work. Whether you are a long-time reader or visiting for the first time, I invite you to dive in and explore.
🧭 How to Navigate the Site
Latest Postings: Tap on the links in the written menus below to search my writing. To dive straight into my most recent pieces three will show on my front page. To browse by Category: Click the Menu drop down at the bottom of the page. Simply choose a category that sparks your interest and see what you discover.
✒️ The Poetry: From Craft to Soul
My writing journey spans over a decade, and you will find an eclectic mix of styles reflecting that growth.
The Evolution of Style: Explore everything from my early, structured days—where my poetry was more didactic and traditionally rhymed—through to my contemporary work, which leans toward free verse while still experimenting with classical forms.
Themes & Texture: I have a deep love for psychological poetry, vivid imagery, and the natural music of language. My hope is that you find lines within these pages that truly speak to your own experiences.
The Craft Behind the Words: Having dedicated several years to studying the mechanics of writing, I also share numerous craft-based articles. If you are a fellow writer or a curious reader, these insights into the “how” and “why” of poetry are for you.
📚 Coming Soon: Sneak Peeks & Previews
I am currently in the exciting throes of producing two new books of poetry that take an intimate look at psychology and the self.As these collections come together, I will be sharing exclusive snippets right here on the blog. Keep a close eye out for these previews I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts, reactions, and feedback as the project evolves.
Enjoy your time exploring, and thank you for reading!
Below see my Three Latest Posts.
- Reading like a poet
Reading like a poet is not the same as reading for story, information, or even pleasure. A poet reads with the ear as much as with the eye. The question is not simply, What does this poem mean? but How does it make its meaning?
The first encounter with a poem should be a surrender rather than an analysis. Read it aloud. Let the sound arrive before the intellect begins sorting and categorising. Poetry existed as a spoken art long before it settled comfortably onto the page, and its music often reveals secrets that silent reading misses. Listen for pace, pauses, echoes, and shifts of tone. Notice where the poem seems to breathe.
A poet approaching another poet’s work should pay particular attention to prosody, the architecture of sound and rhythm within the poem. Prosody is not merely metre, though metre plays a role. It includes stress, cadence, line length, repetition, pause, rhyme, consonance, assonance, and the subtle interplay between expectation and surprise.
When reading, ask yourself: What is the rhythm doing? Does it flow steadily like footsteps, or stumble deliberately to create tension? Does the poet establish a pattern only to break it? A line that feels awkward may be carrying emotional weight. A sudden short line after a run of longer ones may act like a door slamming in a quiet house.
Look also at the relationship between syntax and lineation. Where does the poet choose to end the line? What happens when a sentence spills into the next line? Enjambment is never merely decorative. It can create urgency, ambiguity, suspense, or double meaning. The line ending often holds as much significance as the line itself.
A poet should resist the temptation to rush towards interpretation. Meaning in poetry rarely sits on the surface waiting to be collected. Instead, it emerges through repeated readings. First hear the poem. Then observe its structure. Then examine its language. Only after these stages begin asking what it means. The order matters. Too many readers dissect a poem before they have experienced it.
Pay attention to the poem’s emotional weather. Every poem creates a climate. Is the tone intimate, playful, detached, mournful, celebratory? Often prosody contributes as much to the emotional atmosphere as the actual words. A simple sentence spoken in a slow, measured rhythm feels entirely different from the same sentence delivered in a series of quick, clipped stresses.
Reading as a poet also means reading as a craftsperson. Notice the joints and hinges. Why that word rather than another? Why a full stop and not a comma? Why a sonnet, a free-verse sequence, a villanelle? Behind every successful poem lies a series of decisions. The poet-reader seeks to understand those choices.
Most importantly, read with curiosity rather than judgement. Before asking whether a poem succeeds, ask what it is trying to do. Enter its world on its own terms. Listen carefully to its music. Follow its rhythms. Trace the movement of thought through the lines.
A poem is not simply a container of meaning. It is an event that happens in language. To read like a poet is to attend that event fully: hearing the music beneath the words, feeling the pulse beneath the music, and discovering how sound, form, and meaning become inseparable.
Brief Reflection
The ordinary reader may ask, What does this poem say? The poet asks, How does it sing? In that difference lies the beginning of a deeper understanding of both poetry and prosody. - Vowels and Consonants and the Architecture of Speech
Vowels, Consonants and the Architecture of Speech
Before we can explore stress and rhythm, it helps to understand something about the sounds that make up spoken language.
We often think of vowels and consonants as groups of letters, but they are more accurately described as different kinds of speech sounds.
A vowel sound is produced with relatively little obstruction to the flow of air. As you pronounce the vowels in see, say, sigh, sew, and Sue, notice that the air moves freely through the mouth. The shape of the mouth changes, but the tongue does not completely block the airflow.
A consonant sound is produced by partially or completely interrupting that airflow. The lips may close (p, b, m), the tongue may touch the ridge behind the teeth (t, d), or the airflow may be narrowed to create friction (s, f, sh).
One way of thinking about the difference is that vowels provide the voice with a resonant pathway, while consonants shape, direct, interrupt, and refine that sound.
Try saying the following sounds aloud:
aaaaa
ooooo
eeeee
Notice how they can be sustained almost indefinitely.
Now try:
p
t
k
These sounds cannot be prolonged in the same way because they involve a complete closure of the airflow.
Next try:
sssss
fffff
mmmm
These consonants can be extended, but they still shape the airflow differently from vowels.
This distinction matters because the rhythmic structure of speech depends heavily on the interaction between vowels and consonants. Vowels tend to carry syllables, while consonants help define where one sound ends and another begins.
The Curious Case of Y
Most letters consistently represent either vowel sounds or consonant sounds. The letter y is unusual because it can represent both.
At the beginning of words such as yes, yellow, and yard, the letter y represents a consonant sound.
In words such as my, fly, sky, and happy, it represents a vowel sound.
This reminds us that speech sounds and letters are not always the same thing. Letters are symbols on a page. Speech sounds are what we actually hear and produce. The relationship between the two is often straightforward, but English frequently requires us to pay attention to sound rather than spelling.
Why This Matters for Prosody
When we listen to speech, we do not hear isolated letters. We hear patterns of sound.
Some sounds are open and sonorous. Others are sharp and brief. Some syllables seem to take centre stage, while others remain in the background.
Stress, rhythm, phrasing, and expression all emerge from these patterns.
As a poet it’s worth begining to pay attention to how words feel in your mouth as well as how they look on the page. Prosody starts not with meaning, but with sound. The music of language is already present before we decide what a sentence means.
