Today I'm highlighting the poetry of Peter Dixon. Peter Dixon was not just a poet. He was a performer, educationalist and artist. He grew up in London during WW2, and as a boy his schooling was far from successful. He struggled with spelling and the understanding of word, form and grammar, so he tended to write secretly at home, drawing and writing of things largely ignored by schools. Despite this difficult phase of his life, Peter eventually became a school teacher and then a senior lecturer in education. It often mystified him as to how all of this came to pass. As a teacher, he strived to be unbiased and did not neglect the children who experienced learning challenges. Peter Dixon became a full time children’s writer and educational consultant. His first book was published in 1978. Whilst living in Winchester, Hampshire, with his family, he contributed to over 100 poetry anthologies and had seven collections of his own work published including Grow Your O...
During Covid when my home state of Victoria entered a protracted lockdown I started some personal poetry projects. One was 'Covid Chronicles,' a collection of short poems of personal reflection which eventually were submitted to a time capsule intiated by Australia Post. I also started posting poetry over two week intervals on a tree on the reserve behind our house. The reserve runs for approxiately 400 metres, between houses, before ending at Fisherman's Beach. People, families and dog walkers walk its length each day. I hear them from my writing cave. The poems were initially displayed under the banner- The Poet Tree . This humble project commenced in August 2020 and continued until September 2023, clearly immune to Covid. A huge storm completely blew away one of the posts and I took it as a sign to bring the project to a close. I was also looking at fresh projects to pursue, so it was timely. Feedback indicated people missed the regular posting of poems, so in...