Greetings, weary traveller. 

Why poetry? 

Quite simply poetry is the literary vehicle by which I humbly offer up my deepest and most personal reflections on this thing we call life. I feel duty bound to share this file of work, for the greater good, for the collective benefit of all peoples, for the very future of humanity itself.  

I don't think that is an overstatement. 

These poems plummet the depths of human sadness. They rise to the highest point of human exhilaration. They confront perilous predicaments. They offer instruction and challenge, wisdom and profound insight. They provide a moment in which you, the reader, can confront your most expansive dreams and your most claustrophobic nightmares and emerge, scarred, but emotionally enriched and most likely a near perfectly balanced individual, capable of navigating each and every trial that comes your way. Like a tiny ship doggedly afloat on a tempestuous sea.

Take what you will from this brief and, I trust, highly influential flurry of versification. Though I suggest you take all that you can.

Special mention must go to my assistant and sometimes inspirant, Mr Moocul Shiplund, in particular for his tireless persistence in gathering testimonials for this website, undertaking a number of his admirable "unblinking heavy breathing visits", in order to elicit responses. By way of thanks I have included in this collection a moving meditation on Moocul's life long bowel affliction. The testimonials are available on the next page. I share them to demonstrate the trying lot that so often befalls the committed creative.  

Yours,

Trevor Thickett.

Sheffield, UK.