About PoetJanstie
“Life is short and art long, the crisis fleeting, experience penniless and decision difficult”
~ Hippocrates.
As a young man, John was sporting and fit. It was then as much his recreational therapy as a cappella harmony singing, music, walking in the hills and writing is now. Playing Rugby Union for over twenty years, encouraged in the early days by a school that was run on the same lines and ethos as that famous Scottish public school, Gordonstoun, where our own headmaster had been as a senior master. This gave shape and discipline to a sometimes precarious early life.
His fitness was enhanced not only by playing rugby, but also by working part time jobs in farming, as a leather factory packer and security guard, but probably not helped, for a short time, selling ice cream!
His professional working life was spent as a Metallurgical Engineer, Marketing Manager, Export Sales Manager, Implementation Manager and Managing Director of his own company. Thirty five years spent, apparently in a creative desert, raising a family, pursuing a career and helping to pay the bills, probably enriched his experience, because his renaissance, on retirement, realised a hidden creative talent as a writer of prose and poetry. He also enjoys music, with a piano and a fifty-two year old Yamaha FG140 acoustic guitar. He sings bass in three a cappella harmony groups: as a founding member of a mixed voice chamber choir, Fox Valley Voices and barbershop quartets. He is also a member of one of the top barbershop choruses in the UK, Hallmark of Harmony (stage name of the Sheffield Barbershop Harmony Club), who, for the eighth time in 41 years, became UK Champions in 2019. He is also a would be (once upon a time or 'has been') photographer with drawers full of his own history, and an occasional, but lapsed 'film' maker. In his other life, he doubles as a Husband, Father, Grandfather, Brother, Uncle, Cousin, Friend and Family man.
What he writes is sometimes autobiographical, often political, sometimes dark and frequently pins his colours to the mast of climate change and how a few humans are trashing the Earth. In 2013, he published an anthology of the poetry (including his own) of an international group of poets, who met on Twitter in 2011. He produced, edited and steered the product of this work, "Petrichor Rising", to publication by Aquillrelle.
His sort of strap-line reads: “ iWrite iSing iDance iChi iVolunteer ”
PoetJanstie
My Poetry Library 
Pingback: A Poet ~ my first follower | phoenixrisesagain
do you ever wonder where the thoughts of a faerie tale comes from?
sometimes I think a memory of self long ago…or the spirit of yourself long ago….
imagination is essence of spirit I think,
and you have such a wonderful flow of all imagination encompasses…
this was a great poem, I love it!
Take care….
)0(
ladybluerose
LikeLiked by 1 person
A good question, where the faerie tale comes from, and difficult to answer. Influenced by many things, Tolkien Rings trilogy included. Environment: a lot of it deeply embedded in the subconscious, I think; how it got there only conscious memory could unravel, would that I had any of that! Gene pool: now here’s a controversial one, but I believe it is possible for environment, including what we ingest and inhale, to influence our genetic structure and, it surely follows therefore, on the physics and chemistry of our memory and imagination…?
LikeLike
somehow this has a lord of the ring feeling for me…nice..
LikeLike
One of my favourite books, which absorbed me at an important time as a young student. JRT is a master story teller. I just remembered writing a song about it long ago…hmm memories.
LikeLike
yes…was reading it when i was a teenager and just loved it..and still do.. i wrote a poem “you were Aragorn” a while ago about the guy who introduced me to the book.. tolkien is a master story teller indeed..
LikeLike
Would love to see your “Aragorn” poem. This reminds me, forty years ago I actually wrote a song, for goodness sake. I think the tune was fairly pedestrian, but I can remember a few of the words. Must dig it out. Thanks for reminding me.
LikeLike
has an old ring to it… loved the story behind the poem
LikeLike
Ha! Love this. So good and so glad to have found you!
LikeLike
Thank you, Becky, the feeling is mutual.
LikeLike
lol…I thoroughly enjoyed this, John! I agree, the flow is marvellous…a great children’s story. And, I too, am proud to be a part of the GRPG and your mate 🙂
LikeLike
Ah, thanks for appreciating a bit of silliness, Lou ;-). Hope you read the commentary too. I have to say that I love the feel of it; a bit like a (perhaps not so young) children’s fairy story.
LikeLike
Absolutely loverly! I love the flow of this, and the fun of it. I’m very glad to be a grass roots poet friend of yours, John.
LikeLike
Thank you very much, Q, and, mad as the poem seems, it is fun and there could well be a story behind it. Thank the heavens we are blessed with imaginations.
LikeLike