The Jottings of a Nonentity

This collection of plebeian poetry covers a wide range of subjects, simply because they are as stated - just jottings. That is, poems scribbled down when at work in London's Docklands (Oceanus's Daughter); clearing St Mary's village churchyard (God's Gardener); sitting on a bank of the River Thames; (The North Kent Marshes); preparing for a barbecue at Cooling Castle, close to St James's Church at Cooling in Kent at dusk, as a ground mist swept slowly over the marshlands (The Ghosts of the North Kent Marshes); or bored at home sitting at my computer (A challenge).

Some of my jottings were written as a mental exercise while juggling with the use of words or creating shapes with words - that sort of thing. Several were written for my children (A Summer Storm and My Teddy Bear). When Aristocratic Lovers Go Courting was written at Invaforth House, The Manor House Hospital, North London, while recuperating from a serious accident in London's Docklands.

Our Wagon Train was Heading for the Goldfields was written at the behest of my friend, Philip Connolly, the compiler of these poems, after he had been on a sojourn to visit friends in America, returning home with Simon Doyle's journal of that momentous journey.