High Valley - Afterword

     Not long after I received the proof copy back for Shallow Sea (my first collection of poems), I decided that I wanted to learn about poetry and everything about it properly, so I began a course with the Writer’s Bureua.  I’m happy to say that it’s been one of the best and probably most creatively challenging experiences I’ve ever had.

     It’s taken me just over three years later to complete the full twelve assignments and apparantly, I’m only my tutors tenth student to have accomplished this which kind of fries my mind as the amount I’ve learned – and just not just about poetry either – has been life changing.

     The way I now approach things, be it professionally, musically or even normal day to day things are all heavily influenced from this course.  In saying that though, I guess that’s to be expected given that for well over a thousand days in a row, I’ve opened myself up and forced my eyes and mind to look and think differently about the world in which I am part of.

     In HotMoon, I tried to explore the various observations I had bore witness to, and in Glass Wood, well that ended up being a very cathartic piece…in this collection, I’ve mixed in everything I’ve ever enjoyed writing about and also incorporated old pieces from the previous three collections that never made the original cut.

     If there’s one thing I’ve truly learned from the stacks of notebooks, and pots of coffee, endless cigarettes and rising at 4am each day is how to be comfortable in my own skin and say what I want or need to say…sometimes I’ve pushed the truth a little further than reality to give my writing a bit more impact, but again, that’s all fine with me as really, there are no rules when it comes to writing; only guidelines.

     So, here is High Valley and this will be my last collection for a while as although I’ve enjoyed collating this mish mash of evolving styles and trying new forms, it was important to me to round off all my past endeavours before the new year arrives, as I’m looking forward to locking myself away and concentrating on honing what I’ve learnt over the past few years and maybe even try getting published properly at some point in the future.

     Many, many thanks to Helen Taylor who has critqued my work and given me so much encouragement and advice in developing my ideas…muchos cheers also to everyone who has ever helped collate, inspired or bought my work; I’m eternally grateful.

Tomas Bird - High Valley 2016