The poem man

I am not sure my old friend Rod Whitworth will approve of the blog title but as we have known each other for half a century I guess he won’t mind.

We first met in 1974 when we discovered we both lived in Ashton-under-Lyne, and as we both worked at the same place it made sense to travel in together.

Although I have to confess Rod did the driving and was born in Ashton while I had only washed up there in the spring of that year.

Since then, we have drifted in and out of each other’s lives occasionally meeting up to swap stories of grandchildren, books we have read and where in Manchester to get the best cheese barm.

And it was on one of those encounters that I discovered Rod was a poet, and an accomplished one as many of his poet friends testified yesterday when he and others read their poems.

It was a zoom session which allowed a large audience of friends, family and publishers to come together from around Britain and out across the world.

And we gathered in recognition of his new book of poetry My Family and Other Birds, at which point I could fill the page with reviews but will add just one from Peter Sansom, poet and co-director of The Poetry Business who wrote “it's so compellingly written that it's also that rare thing, a poetry page-turner.  Wonderful."

Me and Rod, 2012

But enough of the praise which Rod would downplay anyway, instead it is another example of the talents so many people have, but for a variety of reasons do not always bubble to the surface.

I think of heaps fine photographs which match the best of the “recognised photographers” but are the work of people who were busy with the day job and the everyday preoccupations of the school run, what to cook for tea and Aunt Edna’s birthday present.

Some only took to taking pictures late in life, others squeezed them in between other things exhibiting them on social media rather than in a gallery.

Or those who took to writing, perhaps through a writing group but equally found an audience through social media.

As a secondary modern boy who at the age of eleven was judged “wanting ability” and consigned to a school which lacked the resources and prestige of its neighbouring grammar school I still need sometimes to shout that we all have that ability to express ourselves in a meaningful way which resonates with others.

And that is it.  My order for My Family and Other Birds is on its way.*

* My Family and Other Birds, Rod Whitworth, 2024, is available from the author at rod.whitworth@me.com or Vole Books,  https://www.dempseyandwindle.com/rodwhitworth.html