Thanks to everyone who has shown solidarity with new members, and those who
were welcoming. Here is a brief introduction to who I am.
I have been writing poetry since I was a sprog, but nobody noticed because
it was illegible on accounts of my dyslexia. When I was 30 I was diagnosed
and began to take writing seriously, translating it via computer into
something that other people could actually read. Because grammar and the
like historically meant little to me, I started out writing very
experimental stuff - nobody exclaimed "oh look, a poem!" I am now a
member of a radical (you would believe it if you saw the size of Cecilia's
hip flask) women's writing group, on the lovely North Coast of Ireland,
where people frequently say, "that ought to be turned into a poem you know".
I must admit that I have a lot of reading to catch up on when it comes to
other people's stuff, but I like Swinburn's poem "The forsaken Garden" best
of all as the "death lies dead" ending makes me role about laughing every
time. I also love "Under Milk Wood." I have studied Philosophy, and am now
studying Peace and Conflict (Northern Ireland is a great place for this).
Both of these subjects sneak into my poems, though I mostly write about
domestic, family and local community matters.
I realised that I must be a poet when I discovered that I was living in a
permanent state of being one poem short of a collection. This, I realise,
has become as much a permanent psychological problem as it is a physical and
financial one. I won't go on about 'myself' any longer because I also
suffer from post-modernist doubt.
>From this list I hope to get: informed criticism, an insight into what other
poets are doing, news and events, hot tips on how poets are supposed to
survive.
I look forward to hearing from you all,
Dinah Dayus.
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