Johnny Minimal never went over the top. He only went to war against unnecessary need.
He kept everything under control and kept it all bottled in. A cork in his mouth; He was a man of very few words.
He gave his love in small doses. Just enough to keep her going. He never whispered sweet nothings ‘Cos nothing sugary was sweet to him.
He didn’t believe in pie in the sky. He didn’t talk of God or Christ. He led his life accepting death. He never acknowledged anything more.
Everything would be a close-guarded secret. Everything he kept close to his chest. His private life was strictly private. He never let anything leak.
When he went, only close friends came. As the coffin closed, it was left unsaid. Nothing flowery was at his funeral. What he would have wanted, at least.
I was born in Oxford but grew up in Devon. Then I moved to Italy at 28 where, to cut a long story short, I've been teaching English. I've lived in Cagliari, Sardinia since 1995.
For writing, I've been influenced by poets such as Phillip Larkin and WB Yeats and lately by Simon Armatage. However my first love is music and I’ve always paid particular attention to lyrics. I got a book of illustrated Beatles lyrics at 18 and that got me thinking about illustrating every poem I would write. I liked that extra ingredient of something visual and have, by and large, illustrated any poem I’ve ever written since.
I don't consider myself an artist so doing collages with paper, scissors and glue was a great way to cheat a bit! Sometimes I illustrate poems with photos, or drawings and watercolours, and recently a few oil paintings which is very dfficult!
I've had exhibitions of my collages which has been an added bonus. These have been put together with poetry readings. I have read my poems and there are examples here, either just audio, or video with my cat, Moony, named after Keith Moon, in tow. Cat's full name is Moony Gainsbourg Taylor, Telemachus Peter George after other influences! A great influence has been Johnny Morris and his renditions of my poetry. There are examples of his readings here.
I have written songs with Chicco Fresu which appear on this blog. He comes up with the music and then I fit the words and melody to it. I’m not a singer but we’ve recorded the songs because otherwise we would have forgotten how they went! I have also written songs by myself, and there are a few examples here too.
First and foremost, I like writing. Everything comes from that. The main idea is that poetry always goes together with visuals, music and performance.
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A Pretty Kettle of Poetry 