Question: Tell us about yourself.

Answer:  I am young, Father William, the old man said  -  as Lewis Carroll almost wrote.  I have changed very little over the years.  My hair is white (my conscience less so.)  My joints creak more audibly.  Aside from that I continue as before.  I write, play and generally mooch about looking at, and learning from, at whatever I find.

I am a naïve cynic and a friendly misanthrope.  I feel at home in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, despite having only been here for three years.

Question:  How did you become a poet?

Answer:  My mother always enjoyed poetry and since childhood I have had a head full of assorted verse.  I think I have been writing all my life and the last five years have been among my most productive.

Question: What and who are your poetic influences?

Answer:  An impossible question but I think my earliest, conscious influences were probably Guillame Apollinaire and Dylan Thomas: the former for his brevity and calligrammes; the latter for his joy in the sounds of words.  Many of the twentieth century American writers fascinated me (cummings, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, William Wantling, Carl Sandburg  etc) but I also find pleasure in Browning and Betjeman.  Certainly my taste has become more catholic as I grew older.  I think that this is partly due to my years of "teaching" literature which forced me to look more closely at work which I may initially have dismissed.

Question: Please explain the moniker "Floots".

Answer:  The Scottish term "hoots mon" (often used jokingly or to dismiss the opinions of others) was much used by friends when I was about to leave England.  My love of wind instruments led to the corrupting of this to flutes/floots mon and thus, eventually, to Floots.

Question: Foliaceous Triolet is perfect in form, engaging and wistful in subject matter. You also write sonnets,  free verse, and other forms of poetry. Do you prefer one style over the other?

Answer:  I am happiest when writing free verse, though I often, almost instinctively, use metre and rhyme within it on occasions, if that does not sound like too much of a contradiction.  However, I do enjoy using traditional forms when the mood takes me.  There is no doubt in my mind that rhyme and adherence to form can be restrictive and detract from what is being said but, when handled well, it can be beautiful.

 Question: Why I Write sums up your present writing style perfectly: it's wry, humorous, perfect in form, charming, gripping, and wistful all in one. Has this always been your style, or has it evolved over the years?

Answer:  Thank you for the flattering description!  I have always used humour (in life as well as in poetry) so I suppose that it is never far from the surface.  I also love the sound, colour and rhythm of words.  Puns, polysyllables and a hint of fun have been aspects of my work for as long as I can remember.  I also enjoy a conversational, vernacular tone.  Then, of course, I am also a soppy romantic.

Question: Nature often finds its way into your work, as in half-light. Why does nature speak to you so? Do you think that if you lived elsewhere, your poetry would read differently?

Answer:  Nature is something which I have always loved and, in return, she provides me with an endless source of wonder and metaphor.  My life in England was spent mainly in Devon, another rural area, so landscape and wildlife have always been present in my writing.  A move to the city would, perhaps, change things  -  but it is not a move I would make willingly.

Question: look is such a compelling write. What do you hope your poetry does for the reader?

Answer:  I hope that it engages them: that it helps focus on our similarities rather than our differences.  I hope it makes readers smile  -  both happily and wistfully.

Question: shapes of love is deftly moving. Do you write exclusively autobiographical work, or has your pen been known to tell the stories of others, perhaps tinged with fictional elements for which poetry license allows?

Answer:  Much of my work is indeed autobiographical but, as with so many writers, I am not averse to changing the facts if it helps the truth!  Naturalistic description, third person narrative and straightforward fantasy also appeal to, and have been used by, me but first person "musing" is the most therapeutic for me and, I would hope that readers can empathize with much of it.  Myself is that with which I am most familiar but, if it does not sound too pompous, I am attempting to make the personal universal. 

Question: What does the future hold, poetically, for you?

Answer:  I will continue doing more of the same.  I may evolve by experiment and whim but, if you will allow me the luxury of quoting myself, "I like the sound my voice makes when it hits the paper" and that mixture of familiarity and possibly vanity means that the mixture will remain much as before. 

If you have been, thank you for listening.

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