Born in Norwich, England in the mid 40’s I migrated with my parents via Wisconsin USA, to Australia, and became an Australian citizen in 1948. I have lived in Western Australia since and with my parents travelled the south west of the state for many years until we settled in the Perth metropolitan area when I was 10. The scouts played a large part in my life and through these activities I inherited a love for the country and the bush. I believe this experience gave me a love for plants early in my life and have retained this joy of being among plants and trees, I have now found a spiritual context to their beauty and splendor.
I served in the Citizens Military Forces from 17 years of age until 1968. I completed an apprenticeship in Machine Composing and then worked in the graphic arts and newspaper industry for 28 years. When I left the newspaper industry I studied horticulture at a technical collage, at the same time running my own gardening maintenance company until I left this business in 1994 and became a groundskeeper at the Catholic Education Office of WA. The estate once belonged to the Good Shepherd Sisters order and is now the administrative centre for the Catholic Education system in Western Australia.
This heritage property has a large grounds and I am responsible for its upkeep and maintenance. The grounds seem to bring alive in me a spirituality that I didn’t understand, but wrote down each time I had the experience of observing and working among the vast old trees and plants in the gardens. I found a profound beauty in the simplest of flowers or plants that seem to give me an insight into the awesome wonder of the Creator's ability to lift up my life to a higher level of understanding.
I am married with 5 children and fortunately gifted with the blessing of six grandchildren. My home is in a quiet northern suburb of Perth, the capital city of WA and within a brisk walk of the Indian Ocean. I am also a keen kayaker and spend most weekends cruising about the coastline of Western Australia. I also am fortunate to have a beach house in a northern coastal fishing village about 100 kilometers from Perth. This beautiful area of bush, large sand hills and ocean scene gives me immense opportunity to see and feel the presence of my God in the open spaces. I also gain a lot of wonderful experiences when I visit my son and daughter in Karratha in the North West of the State. These travels enable me to see the glory of the vastness of Western Australia's outback and the natural and extraordinary scenic qualities of the amazing harsh and rugged country of this beautiful state of WA.
My poetry stems from a special relationship with the natural world round me, and in later years of my life have discovered an unexpected depth of affinity with a spirituality that had previous been hidden from me. I began to record this newfound experience about 10 years ago and the writing was left unread for that time until a work colleague had the opportunity to read some of my material. His suggestion was that this material should be shared with others as it had a lot of insights that could help to lift people up in their daily lives. After much encouragement I was persuaded to publish some of my writings in my first book of poems “The Gardener's Prayer”.
I use the written word to try and describe my experiences and emotions when I am given them to record. Without these gifts of ideas, I am unable to sit and write a description of any experience. I must write them down at the time the thoughts occur or they are lost. All my writing is spontaneous from a source of inspiration from within. I consider this is a gift to pass on to others to enjoy as they desire.