A few notes about me...
Born in Glasgow,Scotland in 1961, moved to Toronto,Canada in 1989.
I discovered I had a talent for writing poetry in 1993, when I was hospitalised for a nervous breakdown. (My second)
I had an urge, a prompting, to write down how I felt, while I was depressed. So I did.
There was a famous poet, the late Dorothy Smith, from Hamilton, Ontario, also in my ward.
I introduced myself to her and showed her my poem. She named it ‘An Expression of Depression’.
She told me that she wrote haiku poetry. In fact, I found out later, she was a local radio personality from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and an award winning haiku poet. I had never heard of haiku. She explained what it was…three lines with a 5/7/5 syllable count. She invited me to write one for her, so I wrote:
In the dentist’s chair,
waiting for my tooth and cash
to be extracted.
When I showed it to her, she laughed loudly. That encouragement made me want to write another haiku poem for her. This then led to me writing many more. I had a notepad at my bedside, and I would write all the ideas that came to me, one after the other. My head was buzzing. I couldn’t sleep. Many of the poems in this book were written during my hospitalisation. This new activity lifted me out of my depression.
Over the years, I kept writing and started to dream about having my poems and quotes illustrated and published in a book.
I wanted to create a book of poetry that would reflect everyday life, for the regular person to understand and enjoy.
I wasn’t sure if my work was good enough, but after a lot of encouragement from those I shared my poems with, I knew I had a gift.
I kept procrastinating until after I recovered from cancer in 2016. I knew I had to act quickly to create my legacy. Once that decision was made, everything came together and now my first book, The Thoughts From Alan’s Pen, has become a reality